Neon Genesis Evangelion : Redemption
by tehprognoob
Summary: After Third Impact, as humanity struggles to rise from its own ashes, two children stand in the middle of a chaotic vortex of emotions, memories, betrayal and despair, trying to patch back the world that they'd sworn to protect.
1. I'll Never Forgive You

AUTHOR'S NOTE: removed all my scene breaks (indicated by asterixes), God/Gods/Goddesses/Demons/Various types of deities damn their blackened souls. I realized it too late to fix it. Sorry, everyone, although the writing itself is quite clear enough for anyone to tell between scene switches. Damn it, FFN! Not cool!

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Prologue**

"I want to be I."

These five words rang through the lips of all three Children. As they took meaning,

Lilith began to break up. A jagged line appeared across the ghostly neck and a spectacular stream of blood erupted forth, arcing across the empty void.

_"And to all the Children, congratulations." _

Shinji Ikari found himself between the Black Moon and the blood-smeared Earth. As the image of Yui disappeared, his newfound confidence solidified. A feeling of power that was absent from Shinji's life until and only during the brief time when he beat Asuka's Synch ratio returned with fresh vigor.

The gripping of the fist, a symbol of strength and determination; Shinji gripped his hand now. Gripping, feeling for something tangible to hold on to...

Eva's control handles.

He found them. He began pushing and sliding them back and forth. _'I want to live. I want to go back!'_

The Synch meter began to rise.

_'I AM I! I WILL SURVIVE!'_

Unit 01's S2 Engine began to glow a bright scarlet. A bulge appeared under Lilith's eye. A flash of light blasted through, warped and bent into a glowing cross, twinkling in the void of orbit. The cross shifted, wriggled and split into a pair of wings. They beat powerfully, glowing with life. The Lance of Longinus unwound, flashed and shot forwards a shower of beams. The Replica Lances of the Mass Production Evangelions exploded into a cloud of LCL. The Black Moon burst into a bloody rainbow, and the Doors of Guf reopened to allow Souls exit.

Inside Unit 01, Yui gave up control and slipped gently back into the recesses of Unit 01's Core.

_'Take care, Shinji.'_

_'I will. Good bye, mother. I love you.'_

**Stage I: "I'll never Forgive You **

Unit 01 flared as it burned through the atmosphere. AT Field expanding, it slowed to a hover and came to a stop in the air, then crashed into the Sea of LCL, sprawled awkwardly across the ocean. A thin stream of yellow joined the scarlet of the LCL. The stream bubbled and formed into the being known as Shinji Ikari, who bobbed past the split head of Lilith towards the shore. The waves lapped the shore, its redness contrasting against the white of the beach. On a cracked and broken pole, Misato Katsuragi's cross was nailed. MP EVA Unit 5 towered motionlessly over the scarred world. A thick, violet beam stood out against its surroundings and under it is the head of EVA Unit 01, scorched by the heat of reentry. Lilith's head stared sightlessly into space, a ghostly smile fixed on her lips.

Two figures lay motionless on the beach, Shinji Ikari and Asuka Langley Soryu. Shinji's eye twitched. Creakily, he sat up. A figure stood in the ocean of LCL.

'_Is that… Ayanami? No… that's impossible…'_ Confusedly, Shinji looked about himself. His eyes fell to the sand next to him.

A girl with copper-golden red hair lay on the beach, her left eye and right arm wrapped in bandages.

'_Asuka… you're alive?'_

She lay still.

'_Asuka… answer me…'_

Her form was unnaturally stiff.

'_Don't… don't ignore me!'_

She did not move, did not look at him, did not sit up, and did not come by his side… she wouldn't help him.

Bleakly, Shinji's hands closed around her throat. Like before, her face was blank, devoid of color. _'Please get up. Please help me.'_ Her uncovered eye shimmered in the red light. Shinji's hands tightened, despair washing over him again. Suddenly, her hand twitched. Swathed in bandages, it rose shakily to his face. A wisp of air escaped her strangled throat. Her hand brushed his cheek. It was dry and rough, but caused memories of her to flood Shinji's mind. He saw Asuka as she was crying, bragging, screaming, laughing, growling, happy, sad, afraid, and alone and suffering. A dry cry spluttered in his throat, and a tear splashed on Asuka's cheek. His hands were suddenly weak. They slid off. Oxygen rushed into Asuka's lungs. Slowly, Shinji's cheek fell onto her chest. Only then did the tears come. Only then did he finally cry, old poison rushing out, mingling with salty tears, staining Asuka's Plug Suit. Clutching her, Shinji Ikari cried for his life, the people he cared about, his betrayals, his world. Trembling, he held on to his last resort. He held Asuka, guilt gnawing at his heart. He remembered her memories, her pain, and her loneliness; her craving for attention, her desperateness and her never satisfied need for love. Shinji Ikari cried out like a wounded animal, unsheltered, helpless, when the two words finally reached his pounding eardrums.

"I feel sick."

Asuka Langley Soryu had lain there, numb, as her mind whirled. She felt pressure on her neck, a pounding in her ears; her lungs screamed for air. Yet if was as if she was another person, watching the events unfold. '_Shinji..._' she remembered the being known as Shinji Ikari, who stood by her, whose attention she fought for, who, like all others, abandoned her, who, at this very moment, was trying to kill her. She raised her hand and, surprisingly, found herself caressing his cheek, wishing for his presence next to her again, wishing for him to fill her loneliness. _'I won't be killed by _you_, of all men.'_ She thought dryly. _'You wouldn't kill me, right? Even though you left me to rot, you still do care about me. I know it.'_ And as if her thoughts had reached him through a telepathic conduit, his hands loosened. The rush of air shocked Asuka back to the real world. She found Shinji clutching her, crying into her chest. She smirked inwardly, her past personality returning.

_'I guess I was right, then. You can't afford to just throw me away.'_ She felt in her heart a deep satisfaction with herself. _'I'm healed; completely. I'm a better Asuka than before.'_ But one thing nagged at her: Shinji was trembling on her chest. _'That sniveling coward,'_ she thought. A flash of memory came to her, as she remembered her kiss with him. _'He didn't hold me. Even then, he was too afraid. The Shinji Ikari that I had tried to take for my own…is not here; this empty shell of a boy isn't worth crap.'_

"I feel sick."

Shinji's mind whirled as he tried to clear it. Asuka looked at him coldly.

'_Asuka…'_

Pain; betrayal; abandonment; anger; lust; Unit 02's torn flesh, dangling in the Mass-Prod EVAs' jaws.

Third Impact, and the final decision to come back to Earth; he had decided to return to a world of suffering.

'_Why?'_

Redemption; redemption from the horrors of the past, cleansing of sins.

'_I betrayed the people I loved, and they betrayed me.'_

'_I need to regain their trust. I need to find their trust again.'_

'_Why? They'll just betray you again.'_

'_It's better than being alone. The world hurts me, but there'll be people by my side. I'll never understand them, but just knowing that they care about me and that they'll stand by me…is enough.'_

'_Enough even to endure the anguish of loss, betrayal and death?'_

'_If I didn't return, then my identity will be gone. It'll be as if I never existed. That's scarier than enduring the pain of the world.'_

'_So you're running away from Instrumentality.'_

'_Yes. That is exactly what I'm doing. I'm running away again.'_

'_To a world of pain, where there is nothing for you.'_

'_There is something here: hope. Here, I can hope for people to forgive me for what I did wrong. I can hope that everyone will trust me again; I can't live without the trust of those I love.' _

'_But what are you? The Angels are gone. You're not needed as an EVA Pilot anymore. You're worth nothing in this world.'_

'_I am I. I am Shinji Ikari, and that's good enough. I was given another chance to live, to make it right again. I will redeem myself, and then everything's going to be all right, because then I won't hate myself anymore. That's my ultimate hope, to be finally able to love myself.'_

'_But what if you mess up again?'_

'_I'll be all right. If there's the slightest hope, I'll fight on. I won't give up. Not anymore. I will fight on, for my own existence.'_

Shinji stood up, slide off of Asuka, and dried his tears. "I'm sorry," he said.

Asuka looked at him coldly. Sitting up, she hugged her knees. "Screw you, Third Child," she said, in a contempt-filled voice. "You left me to die when you could've helped. I might never forgive you for that. I might never stop hating you for it." The pain and anger was present in her tone of voice.

Shinji looked over the churning, red sea. "That's why I came back. I want you… I want everyone to be able to trust me again," he said, looking down. "I've let everyone down; I failed you, I failed Misato, I failed Touji… Kaworu… I can't love myself until I atone for my sins." He trailed off to a melancholy silence, looking far off into the distance.

Asuka followed his gaze for a few seconds, "Then you can go back to Instrumentality, Shinji." she said coldly. "I'll never forgive you."

**End Stage I**


	2. Forgive Me

** NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage II: Forgive Me**

"_I'll never forgive you."_

Shinji's eyes misted over as he continued to look at Asuka. "Asuka…" he said. "Can I never…make up…?"

"No!" she screamed. "How dare you think that I'd ever forgive you, even for a moment? After all that you'd done to me? After all the times you've abandoned me and let me suffer? After you stood by and let me _DIE_?" Her words shot daggers of pain through Shinji's heart.

"Asuka, I…I didn't do anything!" he protested.

Her slap knocked him backwards. "Are you _dense_?" she yelled. "Nothing is _exactly_ what you've done!" She turned away. "Now we're stuck in this _hell_ because _you_ were too weak to save anyone." She sniffed. "You let me hurt…you let me die…everything's completely your fault. You killed me." Tears now ran openly down her cheeks, and Shinji, still holding on to hope, held his hand to her cheek and brushed away a drop. Her reaction was lightning fast as she whipped her arm around and smashed her fist into his nose. A burst of blood splattered from his crushed nostrils as he tumbled onto the sand. Asuka stood above him, shaking with fury, and suddenly, that fury was Shinji's, too. A flying kick hit her full in the stomach, knocking her to the ground. She cried out, but he had already pinned her arms down and was kneeling on her legs. Pain crawled from Asuka's limbs, which screamed for circulation, and a slow fire crept from her abdomen. Dazed, she looked at Shinji through what seemed to be a curtain of blood.

'_Will you…kill me, Shinji?'_ she wondered.

Shinji looked down at the Second Child. Half of his mind told him to grab the nearest piece of wreckage and crush her skull, while the other half, more insistent, called for him to pick her up and hold her, begging for forgiveness. He continued to look at her, fury and want intermingling and battling for supremacy within his heart, which writhed in pain with the struggle.

"_You killed me."_ Her accusatory words whispered, and Shinji finally broke down. Dropping his head to her bosom again, he released her arms and encircled her back, crying again.

'_So much for redemption…I just tried to kill her again. I'm just as useless as I was. I can't get anything right.'_

"Asuka" he croaked. "Don't hate me…I beg you. Don't push me away…I can't take any more of this. I'll…do anything you want…just…help me."

"No."

Her eyes burned with a steady anger, boring into Shinji's soul. "I can't be satisfied; not by you, not by anyone. I'm always alone…everybody abandons me in the end. All I have is me." As the words escaped her mouth, their truth hit her like a sledgehammer, and her bravado evaporated.

'_I'm really alone. I don't want this, but I can't be loved, because I can't love.'_

Fate had ripped love away from her, just as it had ripped her mother away. Now, all she has is the shattered remains of a boy who had failed and abandoned her, just like everyone else.

"I can't take this…" she whispered. Shinji's hand grabbed hers. "You don't have to, Asuka!" he said, with bleak pain evident in his eyes. "You have to let people into your heart. Then…you can be happy. You…just have to trust them...trust me…I'm begging you; don't abandon me…" Her shoulders sagged. "Damn it, Shinji." She said, reaching up again to touch his cheek. Shinji brushed her hand with his. "I'll…I'll be here, Asuka. If you need me…I swear I won't abandon you…"

"Promises…oaths…they're all so empty; everything is so empty. I can't trust you with my heart."

'_But I want to…I want you to protect me. I want you to save me. I want you to be with me…'_

'_I want you to love me…'_

Shinji drooped, his tears flowing more freely now. He sat up and looked sadly down at Asuka. "I have no one except you, Asuka." He said. "I need you, so please…"

"You need me?"

"Yes! YES! Asuka, I…I need you…no one else would do…I need you to not hate me, because I have no one except you…"

"Then…where were you?"

"Huh?"

"Where were you when I nearly died against the Fourteenth Angel? Where were you when I was all alone against the Fifteenth Angel?" her voice rose with her suppressed anger. "Where were you when I was torn to pieces while still alive?" her words were choked with tears. "How the hell do you dare ask me to be with you, when you've never held me and had never been by _my_ side?" By now, she was screaming, and tears streamed down her cheeks. "You have no right to ask for anything…" she sobbed. "I hate you…Shinji…I really hate you, you damn idiot."

'_It's…all my fault.'_

Shinji reached over and laid his hand on Asuka's shoulder. She did not resist. "You're right," he said. "I have no right to demand anything, but all we have left is each other…shouldn't we stick together?"

Asuka pushed his hand away and sat up, looking out over the bloodstained ocean. "I hate you, but I don't want to," she stated. "All I can ever hope for is…someone who'll protect me, somebody who gives a damn about me. I…just want someone to love me."

Shinji stood up and surveyed the battered world. "I've let too much happiness slip by. I've let too many people suffer. I've done too much harm…" he clenched his hand. "I won't run away anymore," he said. "I'll stay here…no matter what.

"Bullshit."

"…"

Asuka pushed Shinji off.

I_I pushed him away, just like I did before. I pushed him away, and I pushed everyone else away…in the end, I'm the one who got hurt…'_

'_I don't want to hurt anymore.'_

Asuka sat up.

"If you really insist, Shinji…I won't abandon you."

Shinji looked up, startled. For the sake of her pride, Asuka added, "The great Asuka Langley Soryu is above that kind of thing."

Shinji smiled tiredly and wiped away the tears.

"I…that is…thank you, Asuka…"

"I haven't forgiven you yet, Third Child. I still hate you."

Asuka ripped the gauze from her eye.

"You'll pay soon enough."

**End Stage II**


	3. Reunions

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage III: Reunions**

January 9th, 2016; 8 days after Third Impact.

In the red ocean, a head appeared, and a figure floated towards shore. It washed up onto the beach, revealing a man of perhaps 20 or 30, with a mop of brown hair and rectangular glasses. He lay face down, completely still, for a minute or two, and then twitched, his head valiantly attempting to lift itself up, but failing. A few seconds passed, and with a groan, he flipped onto his side. The man groaned and, finally summoning enough strength, sat up swearing loudly. He shook the sand from his cream-colored shirt and pants.

"Damn it," he grumbled; "I feel like shit."

"Don't we all?" a voice from behind him said.

The man turned around to see another man sitting on the sand. He had long hair and wore a plain white T-shirt and jeans.

"This sure feels like hell, eh?" he said good-naturedly. "Shi-Shigeru Aoba?" the first man asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Damn it! What the hell happened?" Aoba shrugged, "I'd say Third Impact." He looked around, and then gave a low whistle, "Damn! Not a pretty sight to wake up to."

The first man, Makoto Hyuga, looked in the direction his colleague was looking at and jumped, "Damn." he said. "Is this some sort of insane nightmare?"

Aoba chuckled. "I pinched myself already. This is no nightmare, man. This is the _real_ Evangelion Unit 01. Looks a lot scarier up close, doesn't it?"

Hyuga laughed drily. "We _worked_ with that thing, Shigeru. You're not _scared_, are you?"

Aoba turned considerably redder. "Well…" he stammered. "I was just wandering…"

"You're scared man. Admit it."

"Shut up, Hyuga, before I tell everyone that's back about…_Major Katsuragi_? Hmm?"

"Bastard! You wouldn't dare!"

"What'll stop me?"

"The fact that you're approaching thirty and had _never_ had a girlfriend?"

"Can't blackmail me, buddy; everyone knows that I'll be a hundred-year old virgin. What about you, my friend? You're pretty old, too. Do you want me to tell the world that you're a thirty-year old man who likes to read shojo?"

"Wha'da hell, man? You read _shojo?_ Yer a damned pervert, yo!"

Both Nerv lieutenants turned around to see a dark haired, muscular boy march up to them, followed by a more lightly-built boy with mousy brown hair.

"Hey…Touji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida, right?" Hyuga asked. Aoba snickered. "Change the subject…to cover up your embarrassing facts, eh?" he whispered.

Hyuga silently ribbed him hard, and continued. "I thought you'd all gone." He said.

Touji shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I guess dere's too many things dat'd happened here for me to really leave it. Kensuke? KENSUKE!"

The other boy was running furiously towards the downed Eva. "Now don'cha be no dumbass, Kensuke!" Touji called. "Yer not thinking…damn! Yer a real otaku, aren'cha?"

Eva-01 lay in shallow waters, and Kensuke splashed through the LCL with total disregard for his clothes.

"Hikari's gonna be mad, Kensuke!" Touji yelled. "She don' like LCL all over clothes!" Unable or refusing to hear his friend, the obsessed boy climbed up Unit 01's arm and raced over it, slipping and stumbling on the hard surface.

Hyuga sighed and got up halfheartedly. "I'll go get him." He said.

"Ouch! Scheiße!" Asuka yelled, blowing on her burnt finger. Shinji looked around.

"Asuka, are you okay?" he asked. "You ought to be more careful with the fire."

Holding the blistered digit, she turned to glare at him. "Don't tell me what to do, Ikari." She snapped. "You're the one who's promised to protect me, so get to _work_!"

Shinji sighed. "Asuka, I said I'd protect you, not be your manservant." The remark earned him a smack on the head.

"Shut up." She said, blushing slightly. Turning back to gathering firewood, Shinji secretly smiled. The past week had been stressful, what with the city having been deserted and almost all convenience stores had been empty. There were only a few people about, and they were all too busy staying alive to be of company.

'_It's just Asuka and me living here.'_ He thought. _'It seems so peaceful.' _Hoisting up the bundle of scrap wood that he'd gathered, he walked to Asuka's side and dumped the firewood into the small lean-to where they lived. As he did so, a small, rusty metal cross fell out of his shirt and dangled in front of him. Shinji caught the cross with his hand.

'_Misato…'_ he thought. _'I've found what I was looking for. I'll come back to you; I promise.'_

Asuka's soft voice broke the silence. "I wonder where she is;" she said. "Misato's not the type of person who'd stay in Instrumentality."

Shinji placed the cross back into his shirt. "Yea; I miss her, too."

"Hey, kid! Get off of that thing!" Hyuga yelled. Kensuke continued to poke around the Eva's cockpit hatch without heeding the Lieutenant's words.

"Aw, man!" he exclaimed to himself. "This is _awesome_! The armor's got to be at more than two meters thick!" He ran his hands over the slightly charred metal, admiring the way it reflected the sunlight. "This is the baby of my dreams…"

"KENSUKE AIDA, YOU _MORON_!" a female voice screeched. Kensuke nearly fell off the Eva in shock.

'_Oh shit. It's Hikari.'_

Pigtails bouncing, the former class representative marched up to the edge of the ocean.

"WHY, YOU-YOU'RE SPLATTERED WITH THAT _DISGUSTING_ STUFF!"

Kensuke tried to look apologetic and shamed as he stole a few last strokes across Unit 01's shiny armor.

"NOW GET OFF THAT THING AND GET OVER HERE _RIGHT NOW_!" Hikari yelled.

"Sheesh, Class Rep;" Kensuke complained under his breath. "You're not my _mother_, you know."

Shinji stirred and opened one eye. A light weight rested on his chest, and he plucked at it absently. The weight slapped his hand away and encircled his chest. He turned his head, and his face was suddenly smothered by a mass of golden-red hair. _'What…huh…?' _In her sleep, Asuka had snuggled into his arms and buried her head into his shoulder. _'Asuka…? __Oh!'_ Shinji started to draw himself away, but stopped.

'_It wouldn't hurt to stay like this a _little _longer…' _

Her cheeks were warm, and her soft hair was pleasant to the touch, although frazzled by neglect. _'No…she'll murder me.' _ Asuka sighed softly into his ear.

'_Will she…be so mad? She's the one who's snuggled up to _me_. I want to stay like this. It's so comfortable.'_

Asuka stirred and opened one eye. "What the hell are you doing?" she asked in a bland, sleepy voice.

Shinji gulped nervously. "Oh…I'm not doing anything…you…grabbed me…in your sleep…" Asuka rolled off of him and sat up.

"That _never_ happened," she informed him. "Or I'll kill you." Shinji sighed in relief.

"It…never happened."

"Now what do we have here?" the heavyset man asked softly. "A neat lil' camp with food, firewood and plenty of water. It looks like we're in luck."

His companion, a thin, wiry man, snickered quietly. "Don't seem to have a defense, either; a real easy nut to crack." Another member of the group silently tiptoed up.

"All right, guys," he said. "What are we waiting for? This'll be just like every other time we'd raided camps." The first man spat on the ground.

"The hell…what the fuck's even going on? I sit in a bar, and the next thing I know, I'm in some twilight zone and then I end up _here_."

The newcomer shrugged. "This world has certain advantages," he commented. "Remember that little girl we were playing around with last night? Now she was damned nice-looking; not something scumbags like _us_ usually get to screw."

The second man snickered again. "Nice n' tight n' screaming, just how I like 'em; a virgin, too. We didn't get to _rape_ before this."

The third man looked thoughtfully over to the camp. "It would have been nice if you hadn't thought of stabbing the little bitch," he said. "We could've kept her for a real long time. She wasn't much more than fourteen or fifteen, you know."

The first man chuckled, "I've been here before. There's an even prettier redhead in there. A little European beauty, not much older than the girl we did last night, and damned tasty-looking. Let's not waste time now, shall we? After all, we need to repopulate the planet after this disaster."

All three men shook with suppressed laughter, and the wiry man slithered away towards the lean-to.

Shinji gathered up the cans lying about the ruined grocery store's floor. Strangely, he felt happy and contented. Each day, salvaging, cooking and wandering about filled their schedule. There was no urgency, no danger; it was just him and Asuka alone together, and to top it all, she'd quietly dropped his past crimes, ceasing to mention them at all.

'_This is a world that I enjoy living in…how strange.'_

A scream shattered his reverie, and another soon followed. The voice was calling someone for help, it was…

'_Asuka?'_

"SHINJI! HELP ME, IDIOT!"

A loud shot echoed through the skeletal remains of the city. Dropping his cans, Shinji dashed outside, rounded a corner, and came face to face with a massive man in a tattered JSSDF uniform. He had Asuka in his arms, easily lifting her off the ground. The man froze in surprise as he saw Shinji, and then yelped as Asuka bit down on his beefy arm and slammed a foot back into his crotch. Shocked back to alertness, Shinji charged at the man, who dropped Asuka in an attempt to both dislodge her and counter Shinji's furious blow. Asuka rolled aside, gasping in pain, and Shinji's fist connected with the soldier's solar plexus. The air burst out of the man's lungs, and he staggered back, gasping in shocked surprise. Shinji followed his first blow with the edge of his palm, driving it into the man's Adam's apple. With an annoyed growl, the man grabbed Shinji by the shirtfront and hurled him against the store's wall. Stars exploded in front of his eyes, and he slid down, stunned and dazed. Behind him, Asuka screamed again as the wiry rapist grabbed her by the hair and swiped het feet out from under her. A well aimed elbow in the face, however, shattered the man's nose ridge, causing him to howl in pain. With adrenaline surging through her blood, Asuka picked up a massive chunk of concrete and brought it down hard on the top of the man's head. A sickening crunch resounded through the shattered streets, and the first man whirled around, dropping a bleeding Shinji from his hand. He stared, open mouthed with horror, as Asuka dashed from the corpse of his companion and hammered the chunk of rubble home on his forehead. He, too, dropped down, his mashed brains strewn about the scene of the fight.

"Ouch…"Asuka winced, touching her head. A tiny stream of blood seeped from her scalp. "Shinji, get up. There might be more of them around."

Shinji lay on the ground, unmoving. Asuka stomped over to his side and yelled in his ear. He stayed down.

"Shinji…?" Asuka whispered. _'What the hell? He's not-'_

"Shinji, are you all right?" Asuka asked in a scared voice. She sat down next to him and put her finger on his nose.

'_He's still breathing…'_ she realized with relief. Asuka sized up the corpse of the soldier that had beaten Shinji to a pulp. _'That bastard's _huge_…'_

"Don't go, Shinji. I still need you…" she said. A soft wisp of air escaped from Shinji's throat. Gently, Asuka laid his head on her lap, poking his face for some sign of movement. One eye was squeezed shut in a humongous purple bruise, and blood trickled from a split lip. Thankfully, all his teeth were still intact.

"Damn it, Shinji; don't you dare die; you can't die now…"

She clasped his hand.

"Even _you_ wouldn't be _that_ stupid, would you?"

**End Stage III**


	4. Was I ever Alone?

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage IV: Was I ever Alone?**

Asuka tumbled over the broken ground, the wind knocked out of her. The third rapist strode forwards and pinned her down, a malicious grin on his face.

"Well, well," he said softly. "Our little Eva Pilot isn't so tough alone, eh? Where's that boy? Did he run out on you again? Did he leave you to die like the garbage you are?"

Asuka kept her head high, refusing to submit to defeat. "That's none of _your_ business." She said, with as much venom as she can muster.

"Oh, no, he left you, didn't he?" The man said. "Did he get what he wanted, with you?"

Asuka rolled her eyes. _'Pervert. Can't he think of _anything_ besides sex?'_

"Did he play around with you like I'm going to right now? Did he make you like it? Did he leave you wet and dirty when he's done?"

Asuka tried not to yawn.

The man grabbed her by the throat, slowly crushing it. "I saw what you did to those two dumbasses with me. Not something a nice girl would do, eh? Caving in their skulls with a chunk of concrete; you've been a real bad girl, and now you'll be punished."

Despite the slow asphyxiation, Asuka sighed in sheer exasperation. _'He's _worse_ than _all_ the stooges put together.' _She brought her knee up, slamming it into the ex-soldier's groin. As he screamed in pain, Asuka jerked her hands free. While the man was still reeling, she shoved him off, rolled aside and leapt lightly to her feet, picking up another piece of rubble. Without warning, the man grabbed the pistol that the first rapist had dropped and fired two rapid shots in her direction. One bullet singed harmlessly by, and the other tore a bloody gash into Asuka's shoulder. With a cry, she dropped her makeshift sledgehammer and fell down, clutching at the small fountain of blood bubbling up from her shoulder. A sharp agony worked its way up Asuka's neck and down to her fingers. Grunting, the man stood up and leveled the barrel of the pistol at her head.

"You freaking' bitch!" he snarled. "I'm going to kill you…I'll kill you!"

"_Live strong…I won't let you die."_

The crack of the pistol resounded through the clearing, and the rubble on which Asuka had been only a minute before shattered as the bullet tore through the concrete. Wobbling and grimacing in pain, she charged at the man. Before he could level his gun for a final shot, she'd dashed across the few meters that separated them and ducked under his arm. Her uninjured arm flew up and struck the man across the chin. Frothing spittle mixed with blood burst from his mouth, and he fell back. With a furious howl, he smashed the butt of the gun into Asuka's lacerated shoulder. A strangled scream wormed out from her throat, and she staggered under the waves of burning pain emanating from the wound. Seizing the opening, the man struck Asuka between the eyes, sending her tumbling to the ground. She lay there, stunned, as stars whirled about in front of her eyes. Hissing in anger, the man drove a knee down onto Asuka's shoulder, and she screamed in pain as fresh gouts of blood spurted from the wound. Her eyes filled with tears and her head spun, barely noticing that the seemingly bottomless pit of the gun's barrel was pointed directly in her face, nor could she understand the man's roaring voice telling her to die.

"I…don't…want…to…die…" Asuka whispered through bloodless lips.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!" a hoarse voice screamed. It sounded distant to Asuka's ears.

"What?" she murmured, before the man's heel thudded into her shoulder and stars exploded over her eyes.

Wobbling and grimacing in pain, Shinji staggered across the remains of the street. Asuka's voice ran clear in his berserk mind.

"_Damn it, Shinji; don't you dare die; you can't die now…"_

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HER!"

The man stomped on Asuka's shoulder, and her weak scream stabbed at Shinji's eardrums. Pivoting around, the man smoothly brought up his weapon and fired at the boy.

Time seemed to grind to a halt as the dark barrel rose up to meet him.

Shinji leapt aside clumsily, and the rubble behind him cracked with the force of the bullet. Falling forwards, Shinji's mind filled with the combat training given him by Nerv.

'_I won't let you down again, Asuka!'_

Shinji rolled across the broken ground. Sharp stones bit into his flesh, an d his entire body ached from the beating he had received. Rushing adrenaline drowned out all reason. He charged straight at the man, murder written clearly in his eyes. His shoulder slammed into the man's gut, sending him flying over Asuka's body. Shinji landed on top of the man, and slammed his fist into his nose.

The man laughed and struck back, stunning Shinji with a crushing blow to his temple. Dazed, Shinji crumpled to the ground, his head whirling. For a moment, he saw vaguely the shadow of a gun barrel looming in his face. The next moment, it was gone, and the figure standing over him roared in pain, clutching at the front of his pants. Another figure stood up behind the first. It was visibly feminine but thin, raggedy, with long, clumpy hair and an arm that was completely limp. Despite her physical condition, she stood, fierce and proud, with a slab of rubble in her hand, refusing to be beaten. Limping, she strode over to the first figure, bent down and picked up the gun. The first figure arched its back, leaping away, but the emaciated girl stepped forwards, placed the gun under the man's chin, and fired into his skull, blasting off the top of his head. Dark blotches splattered all over the rubble behind him, fragments of skull and dark, fuming blood pouring into the ground.

"Asuka?"

She ignored him, picking at her wound. With the danger past, Shinji's head spun as his adrenaline surge left him and the pain returned.

"Are you…all right?"

"Oh shut up, Ikari. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself! I don't need _you_ doting over me all the time! I don't need people to take care of me! I can manage perfectly fine _alone_." She snapped. "In any case, you're an invalid yourself, so why don't you go and take care of yourself?" Her fingers struck the raw wound and, with a gasp, she fell onto the ground, blood seeping down her arm. "Ach…mein gott…"

Shinji stumbled to her side and tried to pry her fingers away from the wound. She struck out at him fiercely, almost desperately.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed, almost wildly. Shinji drew back, and Asuka looked at him resentfully. "So weak..." She said. Shinji shook with frustration and physical pain. _'Asuka…'_ Filled with a sudden emotion, he grasped her by the shoulder.

"Don't do this to yourself anymore, Asuka…I can't take it…you keep hurting yourself…don't you think it's time you loved yourself more?" he pleaded

"Who the hell are you to tell _me_ to love myself? You're the most self-deprecating, most pessimistic person I…I hate you! I don't _want_ you to help me! I'd rather _die_…" she lashed out.

"No…you don't want to die. You don't want to die; that's why you came back; that's why you decided to live; that's why you're still alive. Asuka…don't give up; you've gotten to far, fought with all your strength…outnumbered and alone… so WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO THROW AWAY YOUR LIFE NOW?" Shinji yelled. "You should be _happy_ to be alive! You should open your heart and _let_ yourself be happy! You deserve to be happy…"

Asuka looked at him with tear-brimmed eyes. "Don't you think I want that? Don't you think I want to be happy? But who's going to make me happy? Who's going to hold me? Nobody! Nobody cares about _me_. Nobody wants me! I'm always inferior. I'm _always_ luggage that people have to haul around."

Shinji sat down wearily.

"Asuka…believe what you want, but I don't think you're inferior. In fact, you're one of the strongest people I ever knew…you can't give up, because you never gave up before, even when the odds are stacked against you and your back's to the wall-"

"Great speech. Now shut up and get me some antibiotics from the store, _without getting killed along the way_."

**End Stage IV**


	5. Heaven in Hell

** NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage V: Heaven in Hell**

Shinji stumbled back into the ruins of the shop. For days now, he and Asuka had stripped it of all necessities. Water, food, and whatever else they needed came from this place. He noticed the bag of cans that he'd thrown down. Sodas, juice and some Ramen's noodles brought back memories of the old days, when Misato, Asuka and he had lived happily under one roof.

'_We were happy with each other…we trusted each other…what the hell happened to my family?'_ Slowly, he picked up the plastic bag. _'Asuka…was always in pain, but wouldn't let anyone shoulder her burden; Misato…lost Kaji…she'd never really come back to us…I…was all alone…trying to find _some_ joy in life…before everything was taken from me.'_

'_Father took them from me. He took Touji, he took Ritsuko…he watched Asuka suffer…just as I did…he didn't help mother. But I can't blame everything on him. I had the power to help, but I ran away…I didn't save _anybody_. I didn't save Asuka.'_

He stood up.

"The antibiotics…" he murmured.

Despite its impressive blast radius, Adam's shockwave was weak and more or less all concentrated in the GeoFront. Once beyond its borders, the blast became exponentially weaker. Out here, it was merely a tornado-forced wall of air that seriously damaged many buildings, especially tall ones, but left most standing. Kicking a pile of pebble-shaped chunks of rubble aside, Shinji walked into what used to be the pharmacy. A pile of clothes were piled up on the counter. It consisted of a blouse, casual pants and a pair of sneakers; a customer, perhaps. Shinji climbed over the counter and into the pharmacy itself. Several rows of medicine lay all around. The boy looked around confusedly.

'_How the hell…I'm supposed to find some antibiotics in this place? Where do I start looking?'_

"Looking for something?" a voice said from behind him. Shinji whirled around, instinctively crouching down in a defensive stance.

The wizened old man smiled at him drily.

"Wha…what? Sensei?" Shinji stuttered. "Why are you…here?"

The ancient homeroom teacher walked over, opened a swinging door set in the counter and ambled up to Shinji.

"You have blood on your hands, young man. Are you hurt?" he asked.

"Uh…not really…so badly…" Shinji said. "Uh…Sensei, Asuka's hurt…can you help me find some antibiotics?"

"Miss Soryu?" the old man asked.

"Yea…"

"What happened to her?"

"She was shot in the shoulder by a man." Shinji said as he scanned the shelves.

The teacher sighed gravely. "Ah, such is the violence of man. Never is it truly extinguished." Then, almost as an afterthought, "Check the back shelf."

Shinji breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the bottle. "Thank you, sir." He said.

The teacher waved his hand. "You're a good man, Ikari. You just need to believe in yourself."

Asuka winced as water washed through her wound. Her Plug Suit pooled around her bare body, wrapped in bandages. Despite the presence of the gauze, her skin was intact, unscarred and still beautiful.

'_I just can't imagine myself as imperfect.'_ She thought. Slipping the bandages off, she smelled the odor of her unwashed body, wafting up to her nose. _'Ach…it's disgusting.'_ She turned the bandages around and did her best to cover the gash with the relatively clean side, wincing as she did so. _'Where the hell is that idiot? I need that antibiotic!' _

"Asuka! Where are you?"

She turned around, and came face to face with Shinji, who was hauling along a heavy bag and holding a smaller one in his hands. Both children froze when they saw each other. Asuka's Plug Suit was now completely off, and Shinji was treated to the glorious sight of Asuka's completely naked body. He could only stare at her, hormones raging through his blood, as she screamed furiously and covered herself with the Suit, and then slapped the boy across the face. Down he came, with cans and bottles tumbling about all around, still stunned by what he had just witnessed.

'_Well, I'll be damned.'_

"What's the situation?" Aoba asked. Touji grunted as he slipped out of the twisted wreck of a door.

"All sealed off; full'a some hard red stuff." Hyuga nodded. "It's Bakelite sealant. All the human passages were cut off in defense. We'll have to go through some other way."

"Hey! Are the four of you going to just sit there all day_ again_?" Hikari yelled as she jogged over to their side. "What's the point of trying to get in? There's nothing but Eva stuff in there, right?" Aoba looked at her strangely, and Hyuga coughed.

"Right; it's all Evangelion support materials, plus several thousand tons of emergency rations, potable water, shelter, medicines, weapons and a buried, functioning reactor, not to mention all of Tokyo 3's data, stored on three Magi systems."

Hikari stared.

"No way; why would there be so much of that stuff in there? I mean, you said it yourself. Nerv was just those Seele people's puppet, and they wanted to start Third Impact for that Instrumentality thing. So why would they stock up the place _for_ use _after_ Third Impact?"

Aoba looked long and hard at the shimmering plastic filling. "Seele's goal was to use Instrumentality to unify all of humanity," he said quietly. "But all the Angels have to be eliminated first. In case an Angel defeated Nerv, but humanity survived Third Impact, Seele want there to be a chance to redo their plan. The Committee doesn't take any chances."

Hikari nodded politely. "Well, at least they had some brains." She said, with a deep and meaningful look at the two members of the Three Stooges. Aoba stood up.

"The only way left is an Eva Lift, but we can't get in that way," he said. "If Shinji's alive, we'll need him."

Touji glanced doubtfully all around. "Nah…da Ace's too messed-up. He be better off in dat Instru-thing." Hikari sighed.

"Asuka, Rei and Shinji had to go through so much. Asuka _died_ trying to stop Third Impact and Shinji had to kill his best friend. It's really not fair to them."

Hyuga smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "That's right, Hikari. That's right." Hikari smiled and held up the bag she'd been carrying.

"Let's have lunch." She said.

"All right! It's Lunchtime!" Touji whooped, sitting himself down on a fallen block. "Sure brings back da memories of da good ol' days, eh?"

Hikari swatted him on the head. "Shut up, you _pig_." Much-needed laughter tumbled across the barren landscape as the group all sat down, and Hikari began handing out their meager rations, and Kensuke raised his half-bottle of water.

"Here's to a coupl'a thousand tons of food just a kilometer under my ass!"

"Ow! Careful with that! It stings!" Asuka hissed.

Shinji concentrated on swabbing her wound and ignored her complaints. Annoyed, Asuka glared at him.

"Don't just ignore me, Third Child; you're lucky to be alive after sneaking up on me when I was naked."

Shinji cast the blood-soaked swab aside.

"Sorry…"

"You're not going to change, are you?"

"Not really…"

"Oh, to hell with it…you're such an idiot."

Gently, Shinji lowered the bandage onto Asuka's puffy but clean wound. She gasped in pain as he pushed the cloth down onto the cut and bound it tightly around her shoulder.

"I'll-make-you-pay-for-this…" She said through clenched teeth. "I'll make you _pay_." Shinji tied another strip of bandage around her arms and looped it about her neck, creating a makeshift sling.

"Done." He said.

Asuka's shoulders sagged as she huffed loudly.

"I can't _believe_ I had to use old bandages that'd been on me for _days_." She complained. "Only a place like Japan could have such _primitive_ conditions…" Asuka trailed off voicing a list of injustices. Shinji patiently listened to her ranting.

'_It's just like how it used to be. I'm content with that.'_

Aloud, he said, "Well, there are still half of your bandages left. If we find enough water, we can wash them." Asuka cast a doubtful eye at him.

"And from _where_ are we supposed to get fresh water, genius? We still have to drink, you know."

Shinji quietly looked up at the sky.

'_It's certainly getting cloudy.'_

"Hey, Asuka…I found a wrecked kitchen store in some kind of mall. Can I leave you for a bit to look through it?"

Asuka glared hard. "I can take care of myself." She stated. Shinji sighed, and walked away. Suddenly, Asuka called out after him.

"Be careful, Third Child!"

Shinji turned and glanced at Asuka, who crossed her arms and looked away.

"It'll be…_inconvenient_ if you got hurt." She said.

"Alright…"

**End Stage V**


	6. The Children who Survived Apocalypse

** NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage VI: The Children who Survived Apocalypse**

The rain splattered gently against the collection of fallen concrete blocks that was Shinji and Asuka's home. Outside, the collection of pots and pans clinked as rainwater pooled inside them. Asuka sat huddled in a corner of the tiny shelter, her teeth chattering, wrapped in a worn blanket fished from the wreckage of a department store. Shinji wrapped his arms about his body, trying to stay warm.

"Idiot," Asuka complained. "Why didn't you take a few embers? At least you could have made some kind of brazier." Shinji looked away, smiling.

"Sorry, Asuka," he said as a matter of routine.

"Dummkoph…I should have known."

"I'm sorry, Asuka."

"Whatever…"

A loud growl came from Asuka's stomach. Shinji looked up.

"Hungry?" he asked, holding out a steaming can of instant noodles and a pair of disposable chopsticks.

"_Mmmph_-WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? Where did you get-it's hot!" she exclaimed. Shinji smiled, and moved aside to reveal the small can in which he'd been keeping a fire burning. He held out the container.

"Here; eat it while it's still warm."

Asuka reached eagerly for the noodles. "Not bad, Third Child;" she said. "It's good." Shinji moved the can between their bodies and sat looking at Asuka's huddled form. Asuka ignored him and wolfed down her food, occasionally wincing as she moved her shoulder the wrong way.

"Uh…don't choke…"

Asuka paused to swallow. "I never told you, but I actually liked your cooking. It's one of the things that made you bearable. I'd gotten used to coming home and having my food laid out in front of me."

Shinji quietly poked the fire.

"I…was happy," he said. "I…had a home to come back to, people to care for…somewhere where I was welcome. I was getting to rebuild my life. Until I realized that I was alone again…Touji was in the hospital, you…were drawing away from everyone around you. Kaji was-"

"Don't say it!"

"I'm sorry."

"God damn it, so am I; and Misato…"

"Was too wrapped up in her own grief…and then she was always gone from home, trying to find the truth behind Nerv and the Eva."

"We were all alone, and _you_ didn't even _try_ to help."

Shinji stirred the small brazier with a stick. "I'm sorry."

Asuka chewed slowly, stirring her food around. "I…can't hate you. I just _can't_ hate you for leaving me. In the end…I still can't just push you away. I still give a damn."

"Thank you."

"Shut up. I wish I can hate you."

Shinji watched the embers flicker and dance in the can. One especially bright spark shot up into the air, blazing for a moment, before it was snuffed out in the cold air. Staring at the spark's demise, Shinji shivered.

"Why hate, Asuka? Don't you want to be happy?"

"Dummkoph; of course I want to be happy; I just can't…let anyone near me. In the end, everyone just…"

"Betrayed you…"

"As if they never loved me; as if I was just a burden that they had to bear. I hated that. I hated those people…"

"And in the end, you only hurt yourself…and everyone who loved you…or wanted to love you."

Asuka put the empty can down. Despite the emotional torment, her hunger was real.

"I forgave Mama…but I can't forgive myself."

"Forgive yourself for…what?"

Asuka hugged the blanket more tightly around her shoulders. "I don't know."

"You have nothing to be ashamed of; you're the one who really fought to save the Earth. You _died_ fighting, remember?" Shinji said.

"…But _you_ still saved the world…not me."

"Just luck…I ran away until the very end. I let you down; it's all my fault that this happened. All the sin is mine; you shouldn't have to worry about a thing."

Asuka felt a shadow of a memory from times past come back. "That luck's a part of you. Wish I had a share of it in those last few fights…maybe I wouldn't have…"

"It's over, Asuka. It's all behind us. We can't dwell on the past anymore; it's gotten you nothing but pain."

Even as he spoke, Shinji realized the hypocrisy of what he had just said.

'_I can't let my guilt go.'_

Asuka stroked the fabric of her blanket, thoughtfully gazing at the flap of a raincoat that served as a door.

"We _should_ just let it go, right?"

"Yea…"

The girl crawled through the rain, blood seeping from innumerable cuts and grazes. Her torn clothes lay in tatters around her bare shoulders, futilely but valiantly attempting to keep a scrap of heat.

'_Why…why does it have to be me? Why did I have to go through this? What did I do to deserve this?'_

Pain throbbed between her legs, a constant reminder of the nightmare of rape; blood flowed down her back from the knife still stuck to her rib cage.

'_No…don't want to die like this…I can't die yet…those bastards…must…revenge.'_

She collapsed onto the ground, trembling, lying in a puddle. Her matted hair washed out around her like a halo. With a final bout of effort, she lifted her head.

A hand lay before her eyes.

The hand reached down and held her battered one. It felt warm, dry and strong.

"Hey, don't stay outside; you're hurt. Let's patch you up."

Shinji laid a finger on Asuka's forehead. It still burned fiercely. He tucked her in more tightly. "Hold on, Asuka," Shinji said aloud. "Don't give up yet."

"So, your name's Miyoko, right? Miss Miyoko Izanami; it's a perfectly sweet name."

"Yea…"

"Apparently, you're just a random schoolgirl that turned up in the wrong hands, eh?" the man said. The girl glanced about the room nervously, clasping her mug of coca. "Yes…" The man smiled. "No need to worry; you're in _good_ hands now." She looked up, still afraid. "I…don't know you…"

"Sweetie, call me Seele 14. My real name isn't important."

He got up, heading towards the door. "Sweet dreams, miss. If you need anything, just call me; I'll be working all night anyway."

The girl opened her mouth, shut it again, and then stammered, "Mr.…14?"

"That's a new way to put it. Yes?"

"Thank…thank you, sir…"

"Anytime, princess; good night; you're completely safe, so no need to worry at all."

"Good…night…"

The door closed, and the girl stared at the impassive steel slab. _'I'm…safe?'_

Miyoko didn't _feel_ safe. Her memories kept coming back. The three men, all reeking of testosterone and sweat, their rough, unkind hands that probed her naked body, groping and reaching for her…

She shuddered in horror and revulsion, throwing the blanket over her head. Her body still throbbed with pain, though…Seele 14…had patched it up neatly.

'_Can I trust him?'_

Miyoko sipped her coca; its strong, aromatic scent tickled her nostrils, calming her.

'_I…I'll have to…He's the only one who gives a damn now…'_

**End Stage VI**


	7. The Nightmare of Life

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage VII: The Nightmare of Life**

Asuka drifted in and out of a delirium. A shape hovered over her, speaking words that she could not comprehend. Something warm was wrapped around her, and the shape was holding out a bottle to her mouth. Trembling, Asuka clamped her mouth over the mouth of the bottle and, with infinite relief, gurgled down the water. When the entire bottle was gone, she dropped her head back and fell unconscious, barely perceiving a hand tucking in a soft, worn piece of material over her body. Her last glance showed her the reddened world all around her, outside the small shelter she lay in.

"The world looks like it's bleeding…" she murmured to herself.

'_Bleeding…no, it's covered in LCL…'_

'_But…LCL…is Lilith's blood.'_

'_That blood…is mixed with MY blood.'_

'_I, Asuka Langley Soryu…_

_Was nothing…would it be better if I'd never come back at all? If I'd just gone where I belonged? Nobody loves me… nobody gave a damn when I suffered. Nobody lifted a finger to help.'_

Asuka groaned as the hard concrete floor cut into her back despite the thin blanket under her. _'I miss sleeping on a Japanese tatami,' _she reflected. _'It's not so stupid…'_

In unconsciousness, her repressed memories began to slide back into her mind.

"_Who are you?"_

"_I'm Asuka Langley Soryu! Charmed, huh?" The red-haired girl said cheerfully._

"_No! That's not me! Don't make me go through…that violation again!"_

"_I'm Asuka Langley Soryu! Charmed, huh?"_

"_Don't be cruel, please! I don't want feel what the Fifteenth Angel did to me again!"_

"_I'm Asuka Langley Soryu! Charmed, huh?"_

"_God damn it! Just leave me alone! Go away!"_

"…"

_A mass of people surged around her. With all her might, Asuka pushed back, unwilling to be swallowed by the crowd. Yet, the sheer numbers soon overwhelmed her, and she fell down. Feet trampled all over her, crushingly strong, merciless, and uncaring._

"_You can't make me experience another mind-rape! I'll fight you! I'll fight you every goddamn step of the way!"_

_Bells chimed, and an unseen train rumbled by._

"_Who are you?"_

"_I'm Asuka Langley Soryu! Charmed, huh?"_

"_Look at me, damn it! Look at me!"_

"_No…I won't listen to you. I won't give up…"_

"_Help me, Kaji! My mind is tainted…"_

_Pain…abandonment…no one to hold on to, no one to lift a finger to help…_

"_I don't want to feel that pain any more…I don't want to be left for garbage again. I'll be strong; I won't need anyone. I don't need Papa, I don't need…"_

"_Don't need Mama?"_

"_No! I need her! I want her to be with me! She loves me! I know it! I have to be with her…"_

"_Don't need Mr. Kaji?"_

"_Kaji…I want you to be mine, too…no…I can't! I can't be all alone! It hurts too much…" _

"_Don't need Shinji?"_

"_Of course I don't need him! That goddamn idiot is always so weak! He couldn't even face reality!"_

_In the Geo-Front, it was dusk._

"_Do you dislike pain?" Kaji said._

"_I don't like it," Shinji replied, with the melancholy stare that he always had seemed to have._

_There was a pause, and then Kaji asked, "Did you find something enjoyable?"_

_Shinji continued to stare at the melons._

_With his casual wisdom, Kaji nodded and said comfortingly, "That's good. Someone who knows pain is kinder to others. That is the opposite of weakness."_

…

_A little girl sprinted towards a door, her long hair bouncing behind her, a happy smile upon her face, flushed with joy._

"_Mama, Mama! They selected me! I'm an elite pilot, about to protect mankind, the best in the world! It's a secret to everybody, but I'll tell you, Mama! Everybody is so nice to me, that I'm not lonely. I'm okay, even though I don't have a Papa. So look, look at me!" _

"_Hey, Mama!"_

"_No…not that! I don't want to remember it!"_

_Asuka clutched her head and plopped down on the seat of the train car that she was suddenly in, with blood-red light pouring into it from the setting sun. In the distance, a bell tolled the train's arrival to unseen traffic, waiting to cross the tracks. _

"_Will you just deny my memories and run away, then?"_

"_What harm could that do?"_

"_Haven't these old memories returned and torn your heart apart?"_

"…"

"_You deny your memories, your past. Therefore, you are denying your past existence. Are you now saying that you have never existed?"_

"_No! I existed, I still exist! I'm alive! I don't want to die!"_

…

…

"_Live on…I won't let you die."_

…

"I won't lose…I won't…die…" Asuka muttered. Shinji touched her forehead again. _'The fever's going down.'_ He smiled wearily. _'She's been like this for so long…days…thank God…'_

"I've fought…I did my best…you can't ask any more of me…"

"No one can, Asuka. Nobody can deny what you did…for the whole world. Don't give up; don't lose _now_." Shinji said. He clasped her hand. "Don't give up on me…I'm begging you."

Hyuga stopped cold at the sight of the decomposing man. His brains were strewn about the rubble, and a rising stench emanated from his body.

"Damn! Who the hell did this?" Aoba exclaimed, backing away quickly. "He's been dead for _days_!" Beside them, Hikari retched emptily, averting her eyes.

"Who's there?" a voice asked from behind them, along with the click of a pistol being cocked. All three whirled around, coming face to face with an equally startled Shinji.

"Shinji…is that _you_?" asked a horrified Hikari. The Shinji standing in front of her looked like a hunter wild animal; his sunken eyes, dirty clothes and sallow, hollow cheeks made him look like a desperado at wit's end, not to mention the yellow bruises all over his visible skin. She strode forwards and whipped the pistol out of his hands. "Idiot; haven't you been taking care of yourself?" Shinji stared, open mouthed, and then grabbed Hikari by the shoulders.

"Hikari!" he gasped. "Please, Asuka's hurt; I don't what to do…help me!" Hikari's eyes lit up. "Asuka's back, too! Oh, oh…"

"There are emergency stores at Nerv?" Shinji asked. "And you want me to get it with my Eva."

Aoba averted his eyes. "Well, y'know, we need it, and there's stuff that'll help Asuka, too. Plus, we can get everyone underground where it's safe, and, there are the Magi systems…Nerv's reactor should still be going…and Eva should be safe enough…you get the idea. But if you don't feel well enough…"

"I'll do it…for Asuka…"

"Thanks…we owe you one."

"No problem."

"Don't look so depressed; we're all counting on you. It wasn't your fault that Third Impact took place, and you ended it, remember?"

"Yea…"

"So, Shinji's gonna go an' pilot again?" Touji asked.

Kensuke nodded. "He's going to help us like he said. That's the kind of guy Shinji is: always worrying about other people and not himself, even if the other person is _Soryu_." Touji bit his tongue in thought. "And what 'bout Soryu?"

"Gunshot; she had a 9mm through the shoulder. Tore through the muscle but didn't hit the bone. Apparently, it got infected, and she's been in a fever for days." Kensuke informed him.

Touji winced.

"Ow…dat's bad, even for someone like her."

The ground rumbled as Eva Unit 01 rose shakily to its feet. Her armor was in extremely bad shape, with the horn on her head bent; scorch marks all over the metal plates and no shoulder pylons. The ground rocked as the Eva's feet crunched through tons of rubble. The inhabitants of the tiny camp glanced fearfully at the behemoth trudging towards them. As Unit 01 passed over the group, however, someone hurled a rock at her. The rock clacked off of Eva's armor, followed by a shrill screaming.

"Give my baby back, you monster!" a previously unresponsive woman screamed. Her eyes shone with desperate fury, blood vessels rimming the whites, and her pupils were dilated in animal hatred. "She never came back…_you son of a bitch_, why didn't you _fight_? Why do _I_ have to lose my child? _WHY_?"

The camp fell silent. The Eva rumbled on, looking only at her destination, the remains of a lift cover. The woman fell to her knees, sobbing in plain sight. Unable to hear, Shinji walked on towards the lift, intent only on the task at hand.

'_This…all this…is…my fault.'_

'_It's because of my cowardice that this destruction happened…I'm the one to blame…'_

'_I don't have a right to be happy; not after this.'_

Eva 01 raised her head. A flash of light came into life, burning like an incandescent candle, and the lift exploded in a cross-shaped beam. Oohs and ahhs swept through the crowd, along with oaths and whispers of amazement. The Eva walked on.

'_All I can do with this thing is to destroy…is that…my only purpose?'_

'_If that's right…then I'll destroy everything…until the bitter end.'_

A shining halo ignited over Unit 01's head as she floated into the launch chute.

**End Stage VII**


	8. What if

** NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage VIII: What if…**

Asuka woke in an unusually comfortable bed. She sat up, groggy from fever-induced coma. Shinji was slumped on the edge of the bed, his face buried in his hands. Asuka lifted her hand and lifted a lock of his matted hair. It showed a gaunt, overworked young man, with clear tear streaks running down his face. Her heart vibrated with a strange sympathy for him, and she patted his cheek.

"Hey, what are you doing on my bed?"

Shinji's head snapped up. For a moment, his face looked exasperated, angry and pained. A moment later, however, a dumbfounded Asuka found herself in his arms, and the room filled with the sound of relieved sobs.

"Mm! What are you-let go of me, you pervert! What the hell's gotten into you?" she yelled. Still shaking, he sat upright on the bed.

"I thought I'd lost you, Asuka. You were comatose for a week. I'm…just glad you're still here…"

"Dummkoph; did you seriously think that a fever was going to bring _me_ down?"

Shinji wiped his face, and showed a weary smile.

"When Hikari and the others found us, you were already too weak to move…I…"

"Came close to letting me die from dehydration?"

"Well, it's not like-"

A loud slap rang through the small room.

"OH REALLY, MR. IKARI; SO WHAT IF HIKARI _DIDN'T_ FIND US?"

"Hey, Asuka…"

"MORON! YOU'RE JUST AS STUPID AS USUAL!"

"Hey, I'm glad you're okay…Asuka. I don't know…if you'd died…I…wouldn't…"

He looked down, and another tear welled up in his eye.

"It was my fault…that Third Impact happened. Everyone who was hurt…was hurt because of me…no matter what some people say, I still have to shoulder all the blame."

"Hey, Shinji…"

"If even you died because of me, then…what reason would I have for living?"

"Me, dummy; you can live on for my memory. Don't forget that."

"Asuka…?"

Asuka smashed his face into the bed.

"Oh, don't be a bigger dummkoph than you already are. If you go and kill yourself, where would _I_ be? I don't want you to die, even though you're a jerk, a pervert, _and_ you're an idiot, but you're still Shinji Ikari. You beat me at far too many things, and don't you dare go until I get you back!"

Shinji raised his head painfully.

'_That biker's fists didn't hurt as much…'_

"Asuka…"

"Spit it out already."

"Welcome back"

"Yea, yea, whatever…"

Asuka gingerly felt the thick, clean bandage around her shoulder. "Did you say, 'Hikari'?"

Shinji picked his head up. "Well, Aoba, Hyuga, and Hikari found the body of one of the…men, and then they saw me…"

Asuka glanced about the room.

"So, where are we?"

"We're in Nerv's underground hospital."

Asuka narrowed her eyes. "How did we get here?" she asked.

Shinji said, "Eva Unit 01 landed near here, and…they asked me to pilot it…to get the emergency supplies in Nerv."

Asuka went rigid. The loss of her own Eva came back to her in a stab of pain. "I see."

Shinji touched her on the shoulder. "I…a lot of people hate me for piloting." He said. "They hate me for having failed…for having failed to protect them…"

Asuka laid her good hand on his.

"I don't hate you, no matter how much I want to. No matter how much you hurt me, I still can't hate you, because I still care about you. I don't know why, but I still can't hate you, because you're the only family I have left."

Shinji looked up in surprise. Her tone was gentle, and her face free from stormy rage. For once, Asuka Langley Soryu was peaceful and contented.

"You're not the first person I'd choose to be my only family, but you're…just a little better than nothing."

June 6th, 2018

"Welcome back, Shinji. How was your patrol?" Major Misato Katsuragi asked. Shinji rubbed his arm. Unit 01 was still barely functional, and piloting was uncomfortable, though Nerv hid the fact from the rest of the world.

"Oh, all right. A few more brawls downtown, but nothing heavy; JSSDF's keeping the place under control." He sighed as the Entry Plug went dark, and he floated in the luminescent liquid.

'_Two and a half years since Third Impact, and we've already come this far in rebuilding.'_ He thought happily. _'I almost prefer this world to the last.'_ After months of riots and rampant crime, humanity had picked itself up again. At least, it did on the tiny islands of Japan. The vast U.S., Russian Federation and P.R.C., on the other hand, suffered far greater casualties in both civilian and governmental lives before martial law was imposed. Even now, rampant police brutality and military oppression was the standard course, even in Japan. Nerv served as only a token power, possessing only a creaky, obsolete Eva 01 and the barely intact Core of Unit 02, preserved only by her thick armor from the devastation of Third Impact. As much as they tried, Nerv could only stand aside and watch the horrors of a post-apocalyptic chaos rage on. Yet, Shinji Ikari found peace and comfort. His family, at least, was full again, Pen2 having wandered back to the ruins of his original home.

'_It's all I really need.'_

"I'm hungry, Shinji!" Asuka yelled across the encampment.

"C'mon, Asuka, I just came back!" Shinji replied.

"I don't care!"

Shinji sat down heavily. "I'm tired…" he said.

"Need a little cheering up?" Touji's voice said behind him. Shinji turned around, and came face to face with a small crowd of former classmates and friends.

"Wh-what's-"

"Happy birthday, dummy. Did you forget again?" Asuka asked imperiously.

"Birthday?"

"You're seventeen today, idiot."

"I am?"

Asuka knocked Shinji on the head. "OF COURSE YOU ARE, DUUMKOPH!"

Shinji looked around, bewildered. "So today is…"

"Your birthday…"Asuka growled. "This is about the third time you forgot about it."

Shinji opened his mouth, and then closed it. "Oh…"

"Cheer up, Shinji. It's _your_ birthday, after all." Kensuke said. Shinji smiled, looking up with a glazed look, which was shattered by Asuka's palm. "Pay attention!"

"Huh? Oh…"

"Mein gott…" Asuka muttered.

"Sorry, Asuka…" Shinji offered.

"Shut up." Asuka told him with a half-smile. "Happy birthday."

"I don't know how this thing still works." Lieutenant Maya Ibuki muttered. "Torn apart and blown up, and Asuka can still synchronize with it, even though it's just a disembodied Core."

"Obviously; it's _me_, after all." Asuka's voice drifted over the crackling intercom. Aoba and Hyuga glanced at each other with benign grins.

"She could be right." Hyuga offered, and all three lieutenants fell into an impassioned discussion on the scientific aspects of Unit 02's Core. Bored, Asuka lay back on the Plug's seat and stared at the rippling LCL.

'_You're still here, Mama. Thank you. I promise I'll take care of myself for you.'_

Maya's voice intruded on her thoughts.

"No, that is definitely _not_ going to work!" she said vehemently. "This is _Unit 02_'s Core we're talking about. She was a combat-specialized Eva, tune only to one highly trained pilot _only_. You can't just take it and stick it into _any_ body and hope it works."

Asuka leaned over. _'What could they be talking about?'_ she thought. _'I hope it's nothing _stupid_.'_ The three technicians carried on their heated debate, while Asuka listened with interest.

"Well, we should first try with one of the intact Pribnow Box bodies." Aoba was saying.

'_Adding Unit 02's Core to a different Eva's body so I can…fight again?'_ Asuka thought. _'That's weird…but…I've got a second chance, then.'_

"Entry plug inserted." Maya reported. "Synch ratio at…61.8%; this is due to the damaged Core; it can't properly function until we fix it. Plus, the Core and the Unit don't match."

The last bit sounded hurried and reassuring.

Shinji sighed as he watched Unit 01 in the stark white testing room.

The monitors beeped and flashed. With a huge sigh of relief, Maya announced, "Unit 01 has been activated."

Unit 01 lifted her head, looking impassively at the group of humans standing on the other side of the glass.

"Asuka, how do you feel?" Maya asked.

"It's weird...it feels...cramped."

Shinji scowled as Maya explained, "That's okay. Unit 01 is not as well-built and mobile as Unit 02." and Asuka smirked.

She twiddled with the control sticks. _'It still smells like Mama...'_

She turned Eva's head. _'The control aren't as responsive as in Unit 02...I'll have to manage.'_

Alarms rang out through the facility. Everyone looked up.

"An Angel?" Misato cried. Hyuga nearly ripped the phone's holder out of its socket. After a moment, he slammed it down.

"No; it's a flotilla; two large carriers, one support carrier, a battleship, four destroyers, and a handful of torpedo boats. They're demanding the surrender of Nerv and the Eva. The Magi have confirmed them to be from the People's Republic of China!"

Everyone tensed. An invasion at the wrong time by the massive People's Republic has always been feared.

"The Chinese have their hands full restoring public order after Third Impact, so why would they suddenly launch an attack on Japan?" Misato demanded. Hyuga tapped his keyboard furiously.

"It's not the government. According to the most recent reports, these ships were taken over by a rebellious general and used as his personal fleet after the country fell into anarchy. It's a warlord trying to get his hands on Unit 01."

"Status of the JSSDF?"

"Barely any defensive power at all; a few tank battalions and some Heavy Fighter Jet-VTOLs, plus a single battleship and a handful of costal batteries…They're requesting that we send Unit 01 immediately to intercept!"

"Then what the hell are we waiting for?" Asuka demanded from the Eva. "Let me launch in Unit 01 and finish them off! It'll be a piece of a cake."

"No!" Misato said firmly. "Unit 02's Core still has glitches, and it doesn't have an S2 Engine. You'll have to run on the Umbilical Cable alone, and since the shoulder pylons are missing, there's only thirty seconds of battery power in Unit 01's emergency power source."

"We still have that positron rifle that Wonder girl used on the Fifteenth Angel. I'll take up a sniper position and sink them all!" Asuka argued.

"She's right." Aoba said. "If they're serious, then Unit 01's our only hope.

"Can we at least use Unit 01's original Core and send Shinji-" Misato began.

"No!" Asuka said. "Not Shinji. You can't make him do what he hates doing. You can't make him kill people. You know he can't take it."

Shinji stared at the people around him. Once again, he saw Unit 01 holding Kaworu in her hand. The boy's beatific smile, his calm acceptance of his fate…

'_I can't pilot an Eva if all I can do is to hurt people.'_

"Asuka-"Misato began.

"Misato, if you make Shinji go out there, it's just going to hurt him. Don't you remember how he was after the last Angel?"

Misato clenched her teeth. "But Asuka…what about you, then? What about _your_ heart? Do you _want_ to be hurt?"

Asuka smiled as she touched her left eye. "I've seen plenty of bloodshed…I've been through plenty, and I've killed a lot of people already…There's nothing that can hurt me any more than I've already been hurt."

Abruptly, she shut off the intercom.

Shinji sat, stunned, as he watched Unit 01 walk to the monorail launch pad. Just now, Asuka had flicked the comm. system back on.

"_It's okay, dummkoph. You've protected me for two years, so don't you think I should get you back?"_ she had said.

'_Protected her for the last two years…'_ Shinji thought. _'Have I been that useful?'_

Unit 01 grasped the monorail.

"But…she's going to have to fight again." He said to himself.

'_Should I have gone instead?'_

With a loud crackle of electricity, the monorail train shot out, pulling the long Umbilical cable behind it, bearing Asuka away to the battlefield once more.

**End Stage VIII**


	9. Destruction Once Again

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage IX: Destruction Once Again**

The JSSDF commander bit hard on his cigar. On the radar screen, hostiles were moving in from all sides.

"Deploy the Jet-VTOLs for a hit and run attack along the coastline," he said. "And arrange the tanks in a defense line. Get whatever civilian that can fire a gun and arm them. Send the police out to help with repelling infantry."

The commander chewed the end of his cigar with a grim smile.

"And don't forget the surprise. Stuff it with everything you can find. Let's make her maiden sortie a spectacular one."

A stream of missiles and shells sped from the jagged remains of the city and dashed towards the approaching fleet. On board, AA batteries broke out in a frenzy of deafening fire as the ships moved apart in evasive maneuvers. From the main carrier, a squadron of fighters launched, while ship-to-air missiles leapt from the battleships and destroyers. Flashes of light lit the air as fire from each side struck home. A destroyer's bridge shattered in an orange ball of flame, the Jet-VTOL that fired burst apart as AA rounds turned it into a beehive of crumpled metal. Tank main guns roared as they rumbled through the woods on the coast, and a TOW rocket launcher fired several fast bursts into a small, nearby vessel, turning the craft's broad side into a mountain of smoldering steel fragments.

Overhead, the Chinese MiGs swept down, guns chattering. Unable to counter the MiGs' diving attack, the JSSDF VTOLs fell back, spitting machine cannon rounds and flares.

"The air defense force is falling back, sir." a young operator called. "They can't counter the MiGs! 18% of our VTOL gunships have been destroyed!"

The commander gritted his teeth. _'Even 'it' can't repel an attack by highly maneuverable MiG-35s.'_

The MiG squadron dived, as one, and locked on to several straggling gunships, machine guns at the ready.

A shaft of pure, brilliant light blazed across the battlefield, and the fighters were instantly incinerated by it. Globs of molten metal splattered all over the field, and the white-hot remains crashed, in showers of sparks, onto the ground.

"Ah...what the-sir, all the enemy aircraft have been shot down!" the operator squeaked. "It-_it's an Eva_!"

Heads snapped to the screen. Frantically, the operator called up an image of Unit 01, kneeling on one knee with the X-20 Positron Sniper Rifle poised. She shifted the rifle down towards the main carrier, and fired again. The blood-red sea hissed and burst into foamy steam as the beam scythed through the air above it and hit the carrier. The stream of light smashed right through, slicing it apart, along with a battleship right behind the carrier. The sea roared, as if in pain, and retreated from the blistering beam. As the waves merged again, the glowing ends of the carrier sank quickly, raised a cloud of steam as they cooled, creating a gigantic vortex that pulled lifeboats and support vessels off course and into a confused mob of crafts around the destroyed battleship. For a moment, she was silent, most of her superstructure having been melted away. As she drifted into the disorganized fleet, however, sparks raced across her mutilated deck, and the ship blew up in a spectacular fireball, throwing burning men, equipment, small tugboats and fragments of metal flying into the air. Deciding that following up with the attack was not wise; the survivors hit their helms hard and began to retreat.

"Oh no, you don't." the JSSDF commander muttered. "Launch the T-RIDEN-T Land Cruiser!" he roared. "And tell the Eva to hold fire!"

Asuka laid the spent sniper rifle down on the monorail and reached for her Magoroku-Exterminate Sword. Just then, however, Misato's voice broke over the intercom.

"Hold your fire, Asuka. The JSSDF wants to turn some new secret weapon loose on the survivors. Just retreat now."

"No, I will _not_!" Asuka declared angrily. "I can finish them off perfectly fine by myself!"

"Let the JSSDF show off." Misato said. "If you want, you can stay and do some reconnaissance whatever they're going to use."

She smiled inwardly and added,

"Asuka, show them how Nerv does things when their secret weapon messes up."

Catching her meaning, Asuka smiled back with just as much malice.

"Understood, Major."

With an earth-shaking rumble, the T-RIDEN-T emerged out of a hidden cove at the mouth of the harbor and clambered towards the ships. The remains of the fleet were now caught between a rock and a hard place, trapped by two powerful machines, both intent on destroying it. Asuka, out of a desire to mess things up for the despised JSSDF, casually assumed an easy, defensive stance, watching the fleet fall back towards her with detached interest. The dinosaur-like T-RIDEN-T began to spew missiles from launchers on its back, and a tiny looking machine gun spat equally unimpressive rounds from under its chin. Asuka watched from Unit 01 as the monstrous piece of machinery tramples through the bay's crimson waters and chewed a torpedo boat into scrap with a blistering barrage. The three remaining destroyers split apart and churned through the water, firing as they broke formation, while torpedoes hissed through the water, exploding against the T-RIDENT-T's legs. Rockets shattered another torpedo boat's hull, sending men and equipment flying into the air as a flurry of missiles decapitated the T-RIDEN-T, the head bouncing clean off of its neck, and pairs of torpedoes severed its knee joints, sending the overweight machine crashing off balance, pitching head first into the water, next to a pool of corpses and sunken hulls.

"Hey, Misato," Asuka said. "It looks like the JSSDF _did_ mess up. Should I move in?"

In the bay, the last three destroyers pounded the inert hull of the T-RIDEN-T. Bits and pieces of dark blue armor flew in all directions, and craters dotted the machine's exterior as smoke cleared.

"Why the hell isn't your Eva doing anything?" the JSSDF commander screamed through the phone.

"You told us to hold fire, didn't you?" Misato replied smoothly. Then, as her professional sense nagged at her, she turned and ordered Asuka to rescue the T-RIDEN-T.

The gigantic sword twirled in the air, falling back smack into Unit 01's palm.

"Guten morgen, everyone," Asuka said happily. "I'm _back_!"

**End Stage IX**


	10. Lost in Hell

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage X: Lost in Hell**

With a screech of protesting metal, the broken end of the destroyer dislodged and splashed into the bay. Unit 01 casually tossed the other end into another destroyer, and then sliced deep into the last one with her sword, opening its deck wide like a gutted fish. In the water, men splashed and struggled as they tried to escape from the massive vortexes of water that Unit 01 created as she strode through the bay. Most failed, and drowned, bloated bodies littered the Eva's wake.

In the Entry Plug, Asuka flexed her body, stiff from the boredom of the last three years. The Eva that she was using now still seemed creaky and slow, but her indomitable spirit was satisfied.

"That was good exercise, Misato." She commented. The older woman sighed in resignation.

"Asuka, if you don't learn to act more ladylike, then all the good men will run away from you, and you'll never get married."

"MISATO!" Asuka screeched. Misato smiled evilly.

"And Shinji will be too scared to kiss you again-"

Asuka exploded into an outraged torrent of German, out of which Shinji could distinctly make out the word "dummkoph" used in half a dozen different places.

Maya leaned back and observed the scene with general satisfaction.

'_The wounds are healing; they're a family again.'_

Suddenly, one of the sensors blared out an alarm. Almost immediately, Unit 01 pitched forwards as an orange ball of flame erupted from her back. A moment later, the thundering shockwave sent a thundering clap through everyone's eardrums.

"What the-ASUKA!" Misato yelled as Unit 01 fell to one knee and collapsed into the murky waters.

"The A.T. Field just went down!" Maya warned. "We're losing contact with the Eva's systems; I think it's a rejection!"

"But what was that explosion?" Misato demanded.

"Armor-piercing high explosive shell; it hit right after the A.T. Field failed!" Hyuga shouted.

"Asuka!" Shinji yelled. On the screen, Unit 01 remained inert. The comm. system was deafeningly silent.

"Heavy damage to mechanical components on Eva's back. Communications are down; and…" Aoba stopped suddenly.

"Oh shit! Neither Plug Ejection nor motor control is responding to my system sweep!"

"What does that mean?" Shinji demanded.

"It's probably too damaged; in addition, power management is functioning at 41.5% of normal output due to a hit on the Umbilical Cable's power transfer system. Eva Unit 01's power supply has been reduced by 52.4% to account for the damaged components. The Magi are unanimously suggesting immediate withdraw of the Eva and replacement of the control unit block."

"Object approaching!" Hyuga snapped. "It's a-"

He stopped in amazement.

"What?" Misato demanded.

"Jet Alone…?" Hyuga sounded puzzled. "There's no radiation or any sign of nuclear fission within the core, though…wait a moment…let me try another scan…"

Misato glanced at the monitor.

'_Asuka, get the hell _up_ already!'_

'_It hurts…'_

Asuka felt like there was a red-hot iron pressing down on her back. She hugged her knees and gasped in pain. All around her, Eva's cockpit displays crackled and hissed with static, and her body was strangely heavy, as if she didn't have enough energy to move it.

"Mama, help me." She implored to the dead metal all around her. "I'm scared."

She tried again to move the Eva. The controls were frozen. Overhead, a myriad of error messages blinked ominously at her.

'_Error in the operation system…life support has been reduced to 10% of normal power…Eva set in Gain mode…auto-ejection error…unable to operate the comm. system, 98.2% chance of hardware failure…what's going on?'_

Asuka winced as a fresh wave of discomfort raked her body.

'_This damn heap of junk's broken…'_

Asuka reached for the system log.

'_Please; not the central computer, too…'_

To her relief, a small screen appeared in front of her, logging the actions of Unit 01. Asuka quickly scanned down the list of fatal system failures and located the problem.

'_Heavy impact on the control unit block; TNT explosion, recorded shrapnel damage, massive overload, power supply failure…'_

Something wasn't adding up.

"I've been hit with a humongous armor-piercing shell." She thought aloud. "But then, what happened to the A.T. Field?"

"_Critical A-10 Nerve Connection failure; rejection has occurred in bio-blocks D-25 through D-51; checklist unable to clear Absolute Borderline; synapses disconnected; motor neurons unable to receive instruction; pilot-machine link is unable to regain Phase-III. System Reset commencing; estimated time remaining: 00:05:30:00"_ The screen read.

Suddenly, the Eva jolted, and Asuka saw that something was lifting it off of the ground. Terror seized her mind.

'_Whatever just disabled my A.T. Field's got me; an Angel? Mama, help me! Shinji? Misato? What the hell's wrong with this thing? Why can't I fight back?'_

Shinji felt his palms moisten with sweat as the hulking Jet Alone picked up a completely limp Unit 01. Besides him, the technicians tapped away furiously at their consoles.

"The Eva is completely silent, ma'am." Aoba reported. It'll take another five minutes at the very least to reset the system and restore minimal operational capabilities.

Misato slammed her hand onto the console.

"GOD DAMN IT!" she roared. "What kind of artillery shell can do this to an _Eva_?"

"A damn good shot," Hyuga said. "It hit right after the A.T. Field went down, and scythed through all of the most important systems. It's _too_ good a shot…"

"You're suspecting an information leak?"

"Yes, ma'am. The Magi were perfectly functional when we found them, but there's no guarantee that nobody's tempered with them before we got in."

Misato gritted her teeth.

"And would Asuka be safe?"

"I don't know; life support's down, and if she's captured…the Plug's cap and the Plug itself ought to hold out against most conventional cutters-"

"No, they won't," Shinji said suddenly. "The emergency exit on the Plug is manually opened from the outside."

Everyone's heads snapped up.

"So-" Aoba began.

"We can't let that thing get away with Unit 01." Misato said grimly. "So I guess I'll have to put away mine and Nerv's pride."

She picked up the phone and dialed JSSDF.

Never in his life had the JSSDF's commander been so pleased.

"Boys, Nerv's begging for help!" he yelled, to wild jeering and cheers on the part of the soldiers in the command center. "So let's show them that you don't need no Eva nor no A.T. Field to win; all you need is _hot blood_! Deploy the VTOL squadrons into two teams and rescue Nerv's little princess!"

Onboard the second super carrier, the renegade general let out a genuinely amused laugh.

"Such amateurs; haven't they even _considered_ that such a massive weapon as the Jet Alone II might have AA capabilities? Not counting the fact that they divided their little squadron into two separate teams. Nerv did so much better in destroying my entire beachhead fleet."

He plopped a cigar into his mouth.

"No matter; I'll have a little fun with that Eva pilot, that…Soil or something, whatever her name was, and _then_ we'll see who's boss 'round here. Deploy EMP for the entire Tokyo-3 area."

"Aye aye, sir," his first lieutenant said. "Contact the support carrier _Lieh Dian_; EMP is to be deployed across the entire Tokyo-3 area!"

Across from the super carrier, the _Lieh Dian_ coasted forwards while the super carrier and her maintenance ships fell back. The _Lieh Dian_'s entire flight deck had been cleared and replaced with a gargantuan electromagnetic coil, which was tipped with a large dish. Energy crackled over the coil, and nodes on the dish's edge began to glow as sinister blue sparks raced over the entire apparatus. The skeleton crew of the ship quickly evacuated, rowing with fanatical strength, until they were behind the invisible boundary of the EMP beam's area of effect. Closing his eyes and vainly trying to calm his racing heart, the captain pushed the remote firing button.

The JSSDF's squad leader was surprised when the Jet Alone suddenly crouched down, pulled the Eva out of the water, and wrapped her with its long arms, its pentagonal retracting into the torso, along with the tediously annoying AA batteries. A strange gel oozed from spouts that lifted free of the JA's armor and soon covered both machines.

"Hey, what the hell's going-"

A blinding beam of stark blue energy filled the air, and the man felt crackling plasma tendrils snake through him.

"AH…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

In a moment, the world shrunk to a darkness of pain as his overheated eyeballs burst apart, showering the VTOL's controls with liquid that instantly evaporated. Mercifully, the fuel tank and ammunition onboard exploded in an orange fireball tinged with violet electricity.

Maya leapt back from the consol with a terrified scream as its surface came to life with an indeterminable number of coiled sparks. The giant screen flickered and shut down, and everyone's hair stood on end, crackling with static.

"It's EMP!" Aoba exclaimed as his hair buzzed into a gigantic afro. Misato hissed in pain as sparks raced across her metal cross, and Shinji tumbled to the ground. For what seemed like forever, tendrils of energy wormed their way into every nook and crevice, hissing like a bed of vipers. When the EMP field finally subsided, the entirety of Nerv's central command center was on the floor, writhing and twitching in the aftereffects of electrocution.

A single bolt of that strange energy sliced straight through Asuka's heart, and she felt it go entirely haywire. A jagged scream tore out of her mouth, but when she breathed the LCL again, her lungs felt as if they'd been set ablaze by the electricity-laden, highly conductive fluid. Vainly, she tried to beat away the snaking tentacles, but they latched on to every part of her body, encircling her in a venomous embrace and burning her skin. She could not breathe as her long hair shot up and about like arrows, getting into her eyes, her nose, and conducting more of the damned electricity into her A-10 Nerve clips and straight into her brain.

"OH SCHEIßE, IT HURTS!" she howled, bubbles gurgling from her parched throat. Her eyes were wide, their pupils dilated until they were only tiny dots, as she clawed at herself. The entire LCL-flooded Plug was a superconductor for waves after waves of power that sizzled away at the girl's body.

"_Somebody, please, just make it _stop_!"_

As if by magic, it _did_ stop. Asuka slumped forwards, unconscious, striking her forehead against the controls. Dark blood stained the faintly phosphorescent LCL, and Asuka thought that she could _just _make out a delicate hand reaching for her, before everything went blank.

**End Stage X**


	11. Resurrection X The Price of Victory

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XI-A: Resurrection**

'_Mama, you were always here with me.'_

'_We were always together, Mama!'_

"Mama…" the girl unconsciously whispered as she curled up in a ball, barely alive. He heart beat irregularly, and she found it hard to breathe. Everywhere, her muscles jerked about uncontrollably. The void that she was now spiraling into seemed much, much better by far.

"Jet Alone systems all check out, sir; now recalling it to the ship with Eva Unit 01."

The general pulled on his cigar. "Good, good…ready the maintenance team; we'll cut through the back and pull out the Entry Plug."

He tosses the cigar's spent butt to the floor.

"Now, let's see who's boss; the useless bootlickers in Beijing or _me_."

"Careful! I said be careful with that thing, you dumbass!" the foreman shouted. "Don't damage it!"

"How are we supposed to damage that thing?" a worker grumbled. "It's made out of solid fucking titanium!"

Ahead, somebody screamed.

"It-it-_it's moving!_"

Everybody stopped. The Jet Alone whirled around, bazooka in hand, as the chains about the Eva snapped like paper links. Unit 01's eyes began to glow, not the usual white, but a deep, ominous crimson.

"Call the fucking bridge, you fucking idiots!" the foreman roared. "Get help! If that thing wakes up then it's all over!"

Suddenly, the deck was filled with the howling of what seemed like a hurricane. The next moment, every worker and sailor on the deck disappeared in puffs of pulverized blood and bone, and the JA tumbled into the water, where it sank instantly. The super carrier's island collapsed in a crumpled wreckage of steel, and red blood welled clearly under the pile of metal and glass.

With a deep groan, Unit 01 sat up. The weight shift shook the carrier's hull violently, causing Unit 01 to slide to the edge before she grabbed the elevator, tearing it halfway from the deck.

"_I'm…alive…"_

Unit 01 clambered to her feet. The carrier groaned and sank down, her deck almost touching the water.

"_I…don't want to die."_

Men began to leap out of whatever opening that could be found in the bay of the ship. The deck strained, the sound of creaking metal reverberating around the hull.

"_I…don't want to die."_

Unit 01 stood her ground as shells from hastily turned AA guns splashed uselessly against her A.T. Field.

"SEVER THE POWER CABLE!" someone yelled futilely. Everywhere, panicked sailors fled, leaving their stations behind.

"_I…"_

Unit 01 sank to one knee.

"_Don't want to…"_

Asuka stirred in the Plug.

"DIE!" she screamed.

Eva sprang from the deck. The carrier bounced up out of the water and landed, bottom exposed to the sky. The Umbilical Cable whipped through the sea, slicing between the waves, as Unit 01's foot landed on the EMP cannon. The structure screeched in protest as it tore in two and erupted into spectacular violet flames. Burning survivors leapt off of the ship and plunged screaming into the crimson waters below.

"Don't…underestimate me…" Asuka growled.

Unit-01 ripped a chunk of metal from the wreckage and hammered it into a nearby boat.

"I won't be beaten by…"

The JA's head poked out of the water. Behind it, the waves raged with the force of its N2-powered jets.

"The likes of you!"

Unit 01's fingers sank through the JA's face and hauled it aboard, and then smashed through its head, ruining its combat computer. The machine jerked wildly, thrashing in mindless confusion. Unit 01 grabbed a metal arm, planted a foot against JA's side, and wrenched the limb off.

"Don't mess with _me_…" Asuka hissed.

JA's bazooka rolled off its inert hand. Without hesitation, Asuka hefted it and fired point-blank into JA's stomach. A giant fireball engulfed the ship as the JA disintegrated in the inferno. Unit 01 leapt away, and, as she sailed through the air, put another shell through the EMP carrier. The entire hull broke down in a blazing hell, and the reddish sky lit up as it exploded. With a crash, Unit 01 landed back onto the flattened super carrier.

Red warning signs popped up all over Eva's displays.

"_Power management has encountered a fatal error; system shutting down in 00:29:58. Escape is recommended."_

"Damn it! Didn't you already break down today?" Asuka roared.

The timer ran on silently.

"Schiße…" Asuka cursed. She wiped a thin stream of blood off of her face. "Oh, hell…" She vaulted off of the deck and fired off two shells into the drifting super carrier as Unit 01 soared. The deck and hull were both rent in two by the dual explosions, and the groaning ship began to sink. Unit 01's foot sank deep into the ground, and Asuka winced as Eva's knee took the heavy impact.

"I hate this heap of junk." She moaned angrily, and then ejected. As the counter hit zero, Eva's hatch blew off rather feebly, and the Plug shot out, only to stop rising as its jets fizzed out. It crashed head first into the nearby sand, and, a few seconds later, a dingy parachute deployed, flapping weakly in the wind.

"Oh…damn it…" Asuka moaned pitiably. "That hurt…"

**Stage XI-B: The Price of Victory**

"One-two-three-pull!" Aoba grunted. Shinji bit down on his teeth and pulled hard on the lever. With a strained screech, the hatch opened, and Shinji and Aoba were knocked back by a deluge of LCL. Swiping the liquid from his face, Shinji stuck his head into the opening.

"Asuka, are you all right?"

Asuka coughed weakly and spat bloodstained LCL out of her mouth.

"I'm…fine." She said without much conviction. Shinji squeezed into the Plug. Asuka stole a glance at him as he wriggled into the confined space with her.

"Hey, Shinji…did we…did I…win?"

"We won." Shinji informed her in a sad tone. "There…weren't many survivors…"

"Well, at least we beat them, right?" Asuka sounded relieved.

"Yea…that's right." Shinji mumbled. He looked pale and ready to throw up.

Asuka bit her lip and gingerly touched her head. Shinji held out a hand.

"Let's get out of here." He said.

Asuka gripped his outstretched hand.

"Is there something that you're not telling me?" she asked.

Shinji stiffened. "You'll know when you see it."

"Hey, Lloyd, how'd it go out there?" Miyoko asked.

Seele's 14th member smiled tiredly. "You've got a knack for names, Miyoko. I kind of like 'Lloyd'."

Miyoko laid her hands on his shoulders and pressed her chin on her knuckles. "C'mon, tell me and stop changing the subject. Did you get what you wanted?"

Lloyd sighed and tapped Miyoko on the forehead fondly.

"Things aren't so simple, missy; Unit 01 went half-berserk and wrecked the fleet I was counting on. Guess we'll have to start again, so I might have to ask you for a favor."

Miyoko laid her cheek on Lloyd's. "Ask away," she said. "I'll do whatever I can for you."

Lloyd looked sadly at the seventeen-year old girl. Her soft brown hair framed a delicate face set with a pair of pained, big eyes that stirred Lloyd's heart every time they looked at him.

'_I'd prefer _not_ to use such a treasure like this, but…'_

"Miyoko, do you remember what I told you about Third Impact?"

Her eyes hardened, and a wave of hatred washed over her face.

"It was the top brass from Nerv and Seele. They rigged the Evas to start Third Impact, but it failed somehow, and…people came back."

Lloyd patted her hand.

"Right…I'm trying to start an Impact that'll make it _right_. I want to make a world where nobody can suffer again, where everyone can be safe, where you'll _never_ lose someone you love…"

Images of that willful but beautiful woman flashed through his mind.

Miyoko twiddled with Lloyd's ponytail. "I know…what do you need me for?"

Lloyd smiled tiredly.

"I'll show you tomorrow; get a good night's sleep and pack your bags; we'll be away for quite a while."

Asuka shivered in horror while the doctor bandaged her head. Images of the grotesque, half-roasted men gasping on the beach still hovered in her mind.

'_I…did that to them?'_

All she'd wanted was to _win_, to prove that she couldn't be beaten again, but the price is still far too great.

'_What have I done?'_

'_Murder thousands of men with my own two hands.'_

She remembered again that withered wreck of a marine whose legs were both gone; cut off when a sheet of serrated steel sawed them off.

"Don't fret, miss." He had said in broken Japanese. "I'm glad you killed that bastard; he had my wife and daughters…they at least would be safe now…" He lifted a barely human hand and given her a thumbs-up. "Keep fighting 'em; keep fighting whatever hurts people. You kids are _still_ our last hope."

Shinji's hand brushed over hers, taking her back to the present.

"Hey, idiot…" Asuka mumbled. "I…was that…"

"It's okay." He said curtly. "You saved us all."

"You didn't like being saved, though, right?"

"No…not really…it doesn't matter; we won."

"That's a lie, Shinji. We won the fight, but…did anyone really win?"

**End Stage XI**


	12. After the Storm

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XII: After the Storm**

Hikari laid the sheets on the line. A week after the battle, the general populace had returned to their original encampment from the abyss of Nerv's lower blocs, where they had been safe.

"G'morning, Class Rep." Touji said absentmindedly, hunk of bread stuck in his mouth. Hikari loaded the last of the laundry onto the line.

"Why don't you go do something productive?" Hikari asked. "Go and help out in the fields or something."

Touji scratched his head thoughtfully. "How's Soryu? She back yet?"

Hikari glared. "If you really don't want to work, go to the school that's opening. Asuka's going to be fine, so don't use her to change the subject!"

Touji rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Class Rep; I'm tryin' to be _considerate_ for once. Why are you still so cold to me?"

Hikari marched back to her tent without a word.

Asuka ran her eyes over Shinji's sleeping face. In the years since Third Impact, they'd both grown leaner and tougher. While it just made her look angrier, it suited Shinji fine. Light muscles were already appearing all over him, and his face, smoother and more delicate than Commander Ikari's but retaining the Commander's strength, put the cherry on top of the cake.

Asuka shook her head.

'_I'm still thinking about him like this!'_

Shinji groaned and sat up in his chair.

"Mm…? Asuka, you're awake?"

"Obviously, idiot;" Asuka said. "You fell asleep by my bed?"

Shinji's cheeks colored. "Well, I was sitting here and…I fell asleep."

He cleared his throat. "Uh, how do you feel?"

Asuka looked away, feeling irascible. "I'm_ fine_." She said testily.

Shinji caught on to what she meant, and retreated. "Well…should I just leave now?"

"Go away; I want to be alone right now."

Shinji stood up and left.

"Somebody must've sabotaged the system." Maya said tensely. "The A.T. Field was _shut down_ remotely, but someone rigged the feedback controls to say rejection instead. Someone on the inside's hacked the Magi, and they're leaking information to hostiles."

Misato, Aoba and Hyuga all leaned in.

"Is there any way to plug the info leak?" Misato asked. Maya looked unsure for a second.

"Ma'am…the hacker…used Ryoji Kaji's account to access Nerv's security system and hack the Magi…"

Dead silence swept through the room.

"So…" Misato whispered. "Either he's alive, or someone else broke into his account, knowing that its security clearance is pretty high…"

Maya looked uncomfortable. "Ma'am," she said. "I'll run up a list of present personnel and disable the accounts of those who are still unaccounted for, including Mr. Kaji's. Is that…okay?"

"Yea…" Misato said. "And try to strengthen our firewall, too."

"That's already being done, Ma'am; we're just reverse-engineering the defense wall that Dr. Akagi used…before Third Impact."

"Good…"

Misato's mind wandered back to Instrumentality…

"_I want to make this world _right_ again."_ The being that was Kaji had said.

"_How will you do that?" _Misato had asked.

"_I don't know. Ryoji Kaji isn't here right now. I'm just a product of your imagination."_

"_Not…here…oh, yea, you're dead, aren't you?"_

"…"

"Is he really dead, or did he live and escape Third Impact?" Misato wondered aloud.

"Impossible, Ma'am;" Hyuga said. "If he survived, then he'd have to be off of the planet to escape. That's impossible."

"Is it, now?" Misato asked quietly. "I'm not so sure anymore…"

Several days later…

Miyoko squealed and clasped Lloyd's arm as their shuttle shot out of the hangar and roared up the runway, blinding white exhaust flames scorching the pavement.

"LLOYD!"

Lloyd put an arm around the screaming teenager, although he felt like throwing up himself.

"It…it'll be fine…I don't like shuttles, either." He forced himself to say.

"Lloyd, it's SO MUCH _FUN_!" Miyoko cried. "It's so exciting! Why _wouldn't_ you like it?"

Lloyd swallowed the rising bile.

"If-you-really-insist…Miyoko…but…I'm…going…to…throw…up…NOW!"

And he did, just as the gargantuan shuttle hit the low cloud bank. Expertly, Miyoko flicked a bag into Lloyd's face and caught the flow of liquid that the motion-sick man's stomach churned up.

"Yuck." She complained, sealing the bag and holding the offensive object away from herself. "That's gross."

The ashen Lloyd refused to respond.

_Shinji's face moved down, slowly, inexorably, towards Asuka's trembling lapel. She whispered something that he could not hear, and so he ignored it. She kept repeating the same words. He continued to ignore her. Urgently, he fumbled with her blouse, trying to unbutton it, but, as if alive, the buttons eluded him._

_Asuka's words became louder._

_Shinji ignored her and kept trying to undress her._

_Her words became pleading._

"_Don't ignore me! Help me! Somebody, please…"_

_Shinji looked up. Suddenly, her left eye was a gaping hole, and blood mixed with jelly gurgled from it, trickling down a hanging, bisected eyeball. In horror, he lifted his hands from her breasts, to find them covered in gore. Her chest had been slashed open, and her right arm split in halves. Asuka was screaming now, and the entire universe was bloodstained._

"_You killed me. You ignored me when I needed you the most, and in doing so, you killed me."_

"_No! I'm sorry! I-"_

"'_Sorry' can't bring me back to life." She accused._

"_But, you're alive! I saw you just now!" he protested._

"_Am I really alive?" she asked._

"_What do you mean?"_

"_I'm dead. My _heart_ is dead. I'm dead, and I'm going to be dead, until somebody warms me up. Until somebody decides that they want me."_

"_But, I want you! I care!"_

"_Really now? What do you want?"_

_The bleeding phantom of Asuka ripped away her clothes. She stood now, naked, exposing every inch of the countless lacerations across her body. She leaned in, kissed him on the lips, and lay on top of Shinji, smearing crushed intestines all over him._

"_This, Shinji Ikari, is what you want. You don't care about me at all. You want my _body_, and that's all. Do you really care about _me_? You must've been really happy when I came back unblemished. Did you take the time to soothe the scars in my soul? Did you even _care_? Or were you just happy that I had a perfect body that you can have your way with?"_

"_THAT"S NOT TRUE! I TRIED TO HELP YOU! I TRIED TO MAKE YOU _HAPPY_! I TRIED TO HELP YOU HEAL! WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT?"_

_His words echoed across the empty graveyard. Confused, he looked about. In front of him was a gravestone. It was broken, cracked and neglected, lying in a forgotten corner of the forgotten field, slowly being destroyed by time._

_Asuka Langley Soryu_

_December 4__th__, 2001-January 1__st__, 2016_

_Let whoever cared about her grieve._

"_I died out there, that day. Mama made good on her promise to take me to heaven with her." She whispered. "Where _were_ you?"_

_Shinji sank down and frantically dug at the earth. A thin layer of yellow dirt revealed a cheap, plastic coffin that broke easily. In it was a ghastly, torn skeleton, whose mouth was twisted in an eternal scream of agony. A tattered Plug Suit wrapped the fragile bones, unable to protect its wearer, even in the very end._

"_On that day, I found out that even _you_ didn't want me." Asuka's ghost purred. "So I guess this is where I belong; lost, forgotten, uncared-for, and never at rest…"_

"YOU_ did this to me."_

_Shinji screamed, Asuka's ghost cackled mournfully._

"_Come to heaven with me, Shinji, darling; come to your castaway Asuka. C'mon, idiot, _COME JOIN ME IN THIS HELL _YOU'VE_ LEFT ME IN_!"_

Shinji Ikari sprang up, still screaming. Somebody was cursing loudly in a language that he could not understand. He looked around, half expecting to find Asuka's tattered remains staring accusingly at him, but came face to face instead with a living, breathing, intact, and very irritated her, covered by nothing but hospital bed sheets and some bandages here and there. Shinji opened his mouth, but Asuka smacked him across the face twice in rapid succession.

"Awake now?" she growled angrily.

Shinji secretly sighed in relief when he realized that it was that nightmare again.

"Sorry…it was that…" he began.

"Nightmare where a ripped-up me tells you that I'm still dead and that you killed me." She said exasperatedly. "I'm _alive_, and I'm fine, God damn it. Get that stuff out of your head. Are you trying to punish yourself? It's okay! Just forget about it!"

"Maybe I am…" he said sadly. Asuka took several deep breaths.

'_You can't kill him for being an idiot, Asuka; you can't kill him for being an idiot…'_

She grabbed her pillow and quickly snatched up her sheets to cover her breasts.

"Stop being such a moron, Shinji," Asuka told him. "I couldn't care less what you did before anymore-"

She lifted the pillow.

"So-"

She brought it down hard over Shinji's head with a solid crack.

"Stop-"

The pillow snapped Shinji's head back as it hit him under the chin.

"Having these-"

Asuka balled her fist inside the pillow and punched Shinji in the nose, knocking him off the chair.

"Stupid-"

She raised her pillow back over her head.

"Nightmares, because you're-"

Shinji's knocked-out mind strained to understand that she was about to deliver the final _coup de grace_.

"DISTURBING MY SLEEP!" Asuka roared. Her pillow-encased fist hissed as it blasted through the air and thundered into Shinji's solar plexus. The boy folded in two, and his head banged against Asuka's arm. With a groan, he lay back, his eyes unfocused and his body limp.

Asuka looked at him, surprised.

"Did I overdo it?"

"What's the matter?" someone outside yelled. Asuka could hear footsteps rapidly approaching.

"Oh, it's nothing!" Asuka called back. Quickly, she drew Shinji onto the chair and propped him up as best she could, but his unconscious body simply fell into her lap. Hurriedly, she tried to lift him again, but only succeeded in turning his cheek onto her bare legs before Touji slid open the door and stepped in.

"Wha' the-oh, sorry, did I intrude?" he asked, grinning evilly.

"GET OUT!" Asuka screamed. Shinji stirred on her lap, and reached up a hand, groping around for support. By sheer coincidence, the hand landed on Asuka's breasts and grabbed the sheet off of Asuka's torso, showing both of its glories to the cool morning air. Touji jumped.

"_Holy-crap_! D'ya always sleep naked, or was it just for last night with 'im?"

**End Stage XII**


	13. Moving on, Letting Go, Growing Up

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XIII: Moving on, Letting Go, Growing Up**

The wildflowers quivered against the slight breeze in their soiled paper wrapper. Cuddling the delicate plants, Shinji strode stoically up to the reception desk, where Touji sat lazily with his feet up on the tabletop.

"What's up, bigshot?" he said sarcastically. "Are ya bringing some roses for dat lil' angel of yours?"

Shinji looked around uncomfortably.

"Touji, since _when_ did you work in the hospital?"

"Since Hikari started naggin' me 'bout being lazy." The other young man answered discontentedly.

"Well, I'll just go to Asuka's room-" Shinji began.

"Hello, Shinji!" Asuka said cheerily.

Both boys whirled around. Asuka stepped lightly into the deserted lobby, wearing a long hospital gown and an old school uniform skirt. She had grown taller in the past three years, and the old clothing was too short to hide her graceful, athletic legs. She tossed her waist-length hair back and floated over to the two stunned boys.

"What da-"

"Oh, are these for _me_?" she squealed happily, and took the bunch of flowers from Shinji's hand.

"Well, yea, well, I heard you were-" Shinji stuttered. The flimsy gown revealed far too much for him to be comfortable.

"They're so cute! Thanks, Shinji!" Asuka cooed, and threw an arm around him. Unable to extricate himself from her tight grip and beginning to panic as he felt her warm body pressed against his chest.

"Um-"

Asuka pressed her lips against his cheek. Shinji gawked, terrified by her sudden change in demeanor. She giggled, and then flipped in his arms, kissed him on the other cheek, and ran off laughing.

"Just going to change, okay?" she called back. "I'll be back in a minute!"

Shinji looked, disbelieving, as the redheaded girl disappeared back into the hospital.

"So, I'm right." Touji said.

"Huh?" Shinji asked. "What are you right about?"

"Mana Kirishima, the pilot of that T-RIDEN-T; she's in this hospital, too. She's damn cute, and she's a nice girl, too. I'd say Soryu's jealous of her. She used to like you and probably still does. She'd probably be all over ya 'till you 'n Mana gets da message that you're _hers_. It doesn't matter if yer with her or not; she's not going to let 'ya move on, even if it means ya spending the rest of yer life 'lone."

"Mana Kirishima…?" Shinji said, and remembered Asuka's attitude towards Rei.

"Yes?" a voice asked. Shinji jumped. A slender young woman wearing a plain blouse and baggy jeans stood there. Her delicate face was framed by soft, shiny neck-length magenta hair, as well as gentle and well-bred, set with two big, intelligent brown eyes.

"Oh! Um…sorry, I mean…" Shinji stuttered again.

She laughed lightly. "No problem. I heard your conversation." She stepped forwards and held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, Mr.…"

"Ikari…um…I'm Shinji; Shinji Ikari; but please, call me Shinji." Shinji mumbled as he shook her hand. Her skin felt pleasantly soft, and she had a solid, confident shake.

"Well, it's a pleasure, Shinji." Mana said.

"Same here, Miss Kirishima…"

"Please; Mana's fine."

Touji's voice broke through Shinji's awkwardness.

"Warning; dangerous, deranged bitch at 9 o'clock!"

Shinji looked in the direction Touji was looking at. Asuka padded out around a corner, fixing her hair. Shinji snatched his hand away from Mana and jumped back. Mana cocked her head, surprised.

"Huh?"

"Hey, Shinji," Asuka called out. She jogged over to him and put an arm around his waist. "Let's go home now!"

"Um…Asuka," Shinji tried to say. "Maybe…"

"Well, I'll see you later, Shinji." Mana said with a tight smile at Asuka. "Goodbye."

As Mana's footsteps disappeared, Touji coughed and tried to slink away.

"Don't move." Asuka growled. "I heard what you said!" _And _you'll_ be the deranged one when I get my hands on you._

"Shinji," Asuka said quietly. She laid a hand against his back.

"Asuka, why can't you…let me go?" he asked.

"What?" she asked confusedly.

"Back there, at the hospital. Why did you…act like that?"

She fell silent for a moment, and then put her cheek against his shoulder.

"Maybe I…like you…"

"That's not true, isn't it?" he said sadly. "Why would you still…why would you like _me_?"

Asuka pulled away.

"I don't know, and I don't care!" she snapped. "We've known each other for _four years_, dummkoph. Maybe you'd have noticed that…I liked you."

"Why me?" he asked. "I'm no good…I'm weak willed, I'm a coward, I couldn't even save you; just a week ago, _you_ had to go out and get hurt because _I_ couldn't do it."

Asuka snarled angrily.

"Just shut the hell up already!" she yelled. "Every day, it's 'oh, I can't do this, I can't do that, I'm no good, blah blah blah;' can't you feel _positive_, for God's sake?"

Shinji stopped at his tent. He lifted the flap.

"Never mind that," he said. "Asuka, please go. You should get some rest."

She shook with anger.

"You…" Asuka rumbled.

"IDIOT!" she screamed. An uppercut from her fist knocked Shinji flat out onto the floor, where he lay gasping like a fish out of the water.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"FOR THE FOUR YEARS THAT YOU'VE RUINED FOR ME, DUMMY!"

She sat down hard on his knees. Shinji wriggled futilely, and Asuka shoved him back down.

"Start thinking about someone else's feelings, Third Child. You saw into my mind; you know how I felt about you," she said. "And I _know_ how _you_ feel. We've been through just about the same goddamn experiences. You're the only person here whose story is just like mine. The only one who can understand me, and now you're refusing to be with me, _even though you promised you would_."

Shinji looked away, and Asuka got up again.

"Did you forget what you promised me? That you'd stay by my side and protect me?"

"I…can't protect you anymore. I'm too powerless to help."

"I see," she said drily. "You're no different from all other men. You just have to break my heart again and again."

Asuka reached into her hair and unclipped one of her A-10 clips. She tossed it to him.

"Goodbye, Shinji. Move on _all you want_. I'm _done_ with you. Don't look for me 'till you get it right again."

"No, Shinji; she definitely did _not_ abandon you." Mana said condescendingly after Shinji finished his story.

"But…she said-"

"I spent a good week in the hospital with her around. Asuka seems like the type of person who'd rather keep it in than let other people know how she's feeling."

Mana took hold of Asuka's Nerve Clip and held it in Shinji's face.

"The fact that she left this for you means that she still cares. And don't forget; she _did_ say, 'Don't look for me 'till you get it right.' C'mon; think about it."

"You're wasting your breath on this dumbass." Hikari told her as she walked up to where Shinji sat glumly and glared.

"She was just crying in our tent, Ikari." Hikari said angrily. "It's your fault! Some man you are; you made her sad again. Now go and apologize, _jerk_!"

Shinji looked confused.

"Huh?"

"Ugh…" Hikari rubbed her face with her hand.

She snatched the Clip from Mana and grabbed Shinji by the chin.

"YOU STUPID STOOGE!"

Hikari slapped him hard across first one cheek and then the other, leaving red welts across his face that gave him a comical, feline look.

"How hard is it to just say, 'I'm sorry'?"

"I say it all the time…she doesn't care for it much."

"That's because you've got to mean it! You say 'sorry' everyday, and nobody thinks that you really mean it because…ugh! Use your brain! Make her happy again! Just GET MOVING!"

She booted him from behind, and he stumbled forwards. Mana hurried to steady him by the shoulders.

"Mana, don't cuddle him." Hikari said softly. "It's time he grew up and started to deal with his own problems."

Shinji stood back and rubbed his backside.

"What do you mean?"

"Stop holding yourself back and GO!" Hikari yelled. "God! You're such an idiot."

**End Stage XIII**


	14. This is My Home Now

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XIV: This is My Home Now**

"Don't say anything." Asuka said. She was turned away from Shinji with her head bowed.

"I won't; but I can't afford to be silent either."

Asuka turned back.

"What happened to you, Shinji? You've changed."

Shinji raised his head.

"No. I've never changed. I've just come back; from that place where I locked myself within myself."

"Really…?" Asuka asked coldly.

Shinji walked up to her and held out her Nerve Clip.

"This is yours, Asuka. You left it."

Asuka's fingers closed Shinji's over the hair clip.

"I don't want it back yet, and I won't need it; the Core and Unit 01 are both out of commission. I told you; don't give it to me until you've picked yourself up again."

She sighed wearily.

"Your idiot; someone always has to fuss over you. Man up already and make your own damn decisions."

Shinji blinked as she flicked him on the head.

"What? Uh, Asuka, what do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes.

"This is exactly what I'm talking about: YOU ARE A _MORON_, SHINJI! Use your brain!"

Asuka brushed past him and stomped outside.

"I don't give a damn what you want, Ikari."

She whirled around and pointed a finger at him.

"I'm going to make you _MINE_! You're mine and nobody else's!"

"Move yer ass, Kensuke!" Touji hissed.

"Hold on, man!" Kensuke hissed back. "Mana's in front of me!"

"Hurry up! I want to see!" Hikari demanded.

"Calm down, everyone," Mana said. "They're just talking."

All four of them peeked around the edge of a nearby tent. Shinji stood at the entrance of the tent with Asuka close by him.

"Don't you dare leave me alone anymore," Asuka said. "I don't want you going _anywhere_ but here!"

Shinji moved towards her.

"I promise…like I did before. I'll stay with you, if you'll let me."

Touji snickered.

"Smooth, Shinji; din't know ye haddit in ya."

"Idiot," Hikari scolded. "Keep watching!"

"I think it's nice they've made up again." Mana said evenly.

Shinji slid away from Asuka.

"I've decided; I won't drag my life along anymore; I won't wait for happiness…because it'll never come," he said. "I want to make my own happiness…with you. Is that all right?"

"Whatever." Asuka said. She leaned on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly. His hand came to rest on her shoulder. Their kiss lasted another few seconds, and then Asuka broke away.

"Just do like you promised."

Siberia, 2020; two years later

"Mass Produced Evangelion Unit 14 came very close to completion. Close enough, in fact, for our people in Seele to secretly finish it. It's yours now."

Miyoko looked in awe at the humongous white Evangelion locked down in the tiny Siberian base.

"Lloyd…what will I do with this?"

The man looked off into the distance.

"Reclaim Evangelion Unit 01. It is absolutely essential for creating a perfect world in which people will never be hurt again."

He glanced down hard at the young woman.

"A world where pain is nonexistent. You want that, right?"

"I guess so…"

Cheers broke out from the dirty, thin and disheveled refugees as the soldiers stepped aside to let them inside the first section of Neo-Tokyo 4's apartment sector. The brand new buildings had been constructed from Nerv's funds, freed from their need to support multiple Evangelions, bases, and military forces. A tall, dark-haired and quiet man stepped quickly into one of the buildings, chasing a striking strawberry-blond woman who had skipped happily inside with a gaggle of laughing girls, completely ignoring their male compatriots, who huffed as they ran in after the women.

"Damn…they're so excitable…" Touji complained. Shinji shook his head and tucked his hands into his pockets.

"At least we have a proper place to live now." He said.

"Yea! And I'll have the bath first!" Asuka yelled down from the end of the hallway.

"Go ahead." Shinji replied. He turned back to his fellow Stooges.

"The industries are getting back on their feet. Nerv's scrounged up enough to make Unit 01 operational again. What do you think they'll do with it?"

Kensuke pushed his glassed up. They caught the light from the sun and shone over his eyes.

"I hope they put it in the army." He said. "It'll be an awesome weapon."

"I hope not…" Shinji said sadly. "I really don't like fighting."

Touji clapped him on the back.

"C'mon, man; cheer up! Who's gonna wanna fight after all this? Even if it does join da army, you'll be sittin' in yer Eva doing nothing every day."

Shinji smiled wanly.

"Yea. That'd be great, wouldn't it?"

Nerv-Japan HQ, 1900 hours

Asuka brushed her short hair back. The shoulder length strands were lighter and much more convenient for a refugee camp, but she'd been growing it back ever since the apartments opened.

"Miss Soryu, you look quite beautiful." The Nerv PR makeup artist said mechanically as he put the final touches on a complicated series of rubbing, dabbing, and painting. Asuka admired her look in the mirror.

"It's great." She said unenthusiastically.

"You may now leave."

Asuka rolled her eyes.

'_Typical boring government workers…'_

She closed her eyes and endured being dressed up like a doll by a team of specialists in a dazzling, scarlet gown, complete with every kind of jewelry imaginable. Her A-10 Nerve Clip was replaced by a fragile, diamond-crusted butterfly clip that made her hair hang down in a loose ponytail. A pearl choker wrapped around her neck, and expensive-looking earrings went into her earlobes.

"Jeez, where did Nerv get all of this crap?" she complained.

"The PR department keeps makeup and accessories for all public occasions. And may I remind you to watch how you speak to the UN representatives and heads of state at this reception?"

"No, you may not. I _know_ how to speak to them." Asuka seethed.

"Misato, why do I have to be here?" Shinji asked.

"Because you're the kid who saved the world, I guess." Misato said. "And the bigwigs are signing the Neo-Tokyo Treaty today. It's supposed to deal with Nerv, the Evas, and everything involved. You're a relevant part of this."

"What's going to happen…?"

Misato looked uncomfortable.

"I'm not supposed to tell you what's on the treaty…it's a need-to-know-basis…sorry."

Shinji felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Look, Shinji, don't worry. Commander Fuyutsuki promised he'd take care of you and Asuka as much as possible in the negotiations, so just…enjoy yourself, okay?"

"Sure, Misato…"

The conversations behind them ceased suddenly. Shinji turned around, and nearly tripped on a nearby table as Asuka glided into the reception hall in a blaze of glory.

"Wow, you've grown, Asuka!" Misato exclaimed with a smile.

"I…don't give a damn." Asuka seethed as she joined them. "These clothes are _smothering_ me!"

"Uh…you…look nice!" Shinji blurted. He could feel sweat drops falling into the neck of his uncomfortable suit. Although he was accustomed to the beauty that Asuka had grown into, this was a little too much.

Ignoring Shinji, Asuka sighed heavily and plopped into a nearby chair.

"I just want to home and relax, not stand here and get paraded around in front of all these old men." She said, casting a glare around the room of diplomats and politicians. Shinji drew up a chair and sat down with her.

"_Guten abend_, Shinji…" she said discontentedly.

"Um…_guten abend_…" he repeated in broken German. She sighed and leaned against his shoulder.

"Stick with me, all right? I'm in a really bad mood. They told me that Papa decided to come…I don't know what I should say to him…"

Shinji laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Just say what your heart tells you to say," he told her softly.

"My heart tells me to deck the old man out."

"Well, at least you're more decided than Shinji was about your dad. Hmm?" Misato said lightly. She also pulled a chair and sat down, pushing her similarly dazzling attire against Shinji, who blushed and squirmed between the two women who sandwiched him. Asuka glared.

"Misato, I'm not in the _mood_!"

Before she could reply, a man's voice came.

"Asuka! My goodness, dear, you're so _lovely_!"

Everyone turned around. A European-looking woman and a red-haired, tall, somewhat Japanese-looking man stood there, looking tense.

"Ma-" Asuka began, but then stopped and turned to the man.

"Papa…"

The man looked nervous.

"Yes?"

"You didn't have to come. I could've handled it perfectly well on my own." She said bluntly.

Shinji touched her hand.

"Asuka…" he whispered. "It's all right. I'm right here."

She silently squeezed his hand.

"Oh…, really…?" Asuka's father asked, and then continued in German.

"Well, you see…me and your mama…"

"She's _not_ my mama!" Asuka hissed almost inaudibly. Her father did not notice.

"We've rebuilt a life for you back in Germany. So why don't you come home now, Asuka? Life must so hard for you here…c'mon, you have a home now."

"Yes, I have a home." Asuka replied in Japanese. "Right here, in Japan. I'm not going back to Germany. It's time I moved on, Papa. This is my home now."

Shinji shivered as he felt the force of her words. Her hand squeezed his again, and she leaned slightly towards him.

Misato looked down sadly.

"That won't be possible…Asuka. Part of the Treaty's settlement was that all the Evangelions, their components, and Pilots be split up between nations…Unit 02's Core and you are both returning to Nerv-Germany…I'm sorry; Commander Fuyutsuki raised the case, but the top brass wants you separated. They're afraid of more than one Evangelion in one country ever again."

Shinji turned sharply.

"Is…that…what we weren't supposed to know?"

Misato nodded. A tear welled up in her eye.

"I'm so sorry, Asuka…there's nothing we can do. The UN voted unanimously for this. But-"

"So, the UN finally makes a decisive decision without squabbling and separates a girl from the only real family she's ever known." Asuka said coldly. "And nobody even gave enough of a damn to _tell_ her?"

"Asuka! What do you mean, the only family you've ever known?" her father asked.

"You were never a real father!" She yelled. "I heard everything you said that night! You never _wanted_ me, you _had_ to do it! And you, _mama_, you _hated_ me, didn't you? Well, I was never your daughter, so what does it matter? It looks like I'll just have to be your burden again!"

Asuka kicked the chair into a passing UN representative, who crashed to the floor with a high-pitched squeal. She then leapt away, ran through her parents and dashed away.

"Asuka!" Shinji yelled. "Wait!"

He, too, sprinted away after Asuka's rapidly disappearing figure, and kicked the chair in the process, snapping the back into the representative's forehead and knocking him out cold. Asuka's parents made to run after them, but Misato stayed them with her hands.

"It wouldn't help." She said flatly. "You can't try to hold on to someone who hates you. Let her go! She's not yours anymore."

**End Stage XIV**


	15. Not a Goodbye Not Yet X A Present

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XV-A: Not a Goodbye; Not Yet**

Three years ago…

The blubbering woman struggled as the two stony-faced men carried her into the windowless room. There, they roughly stripped her and thrust her into a tub filled with cleaner-laced water. As she screamed and protested, the still expressionless professionals cleaned her thoroughly, not leaving any traces of dirt or grime. Then, they emptied the tub and pulled out a second one and repeated the procedure twice more before they were satisfied. All of her hair was systematically shorn smooth, and a plain white polyester suit was forced onto her. One of the men pressed a button, and the suit emitted a loud hiss as it pressurized.

"Mrs. Izanami, please do not resist us if you wish to see your daughter." One of the men threatened.

"How dare you treat me like this!" the outraged woman yelled. "I swear, if you did anything to Miyoko, I'll-"

"We apologize for the rude treatment, but there are a number of valuable and delicate specimens inside, and this facility is completely sterile. Any possible contaminants on your body can prove fatal to what we are trying to do here. Miss Izanami, by the way, is completely safe with us. However, we cannot guarantee _your_ safety as long as you prove to be a liability. Your daughter is not yet aware of the fact that you are alive. Therefore, it would not hinder our operations to silence you." The agent said coldly. "Please proceed with me to your next station."

Another door hissed open pneumatically, and Mrs. Izanami was herded into a long, cylindrical container, whose cap closed and sealed her inside. The container's walls lit up with innumerable and indecipherable messages that rolled around, until a light flashed green. Thick, orange liquid poured into the plug from unseen pumps, and the woman inside screamed in terror and pounded the walls.

"Please! I'm sorry! Let me out! I just want to see my daughter! I'll do anything! Anything-"

The LCL flooded over her, and her eyes rolled back in panic while she held her breath, not realizing that the LCL provided oxygen. In a few minutes, she hung limp in the liquid, knocked out by sheer fear of drowning and the shock of liquid in her lungs.

"Insertion subject has become unconscious. No foreseeable need for anesthetics; now beginning connection to Unit-14."

Asuka sat of the bench in the cold night air. A slight breeze brushed her hair, toying around with the strands. She stared emptily into the night. Behind her, Shinji leaned on his knees and panted heavily.

"Shinji…you came after me?" she asked blankly.

"I know this is where I need to be right now."

"Good. You're getting smarter."

Shinji sat down next to her. She leaned slowly into him.

"I can't believe it…it's all so damn stupid." She said. There was a note of tears in her voice. Shinji felt his own eyes watering.

"Finally, I find somewhere I can call home, but then I get ripped away from it…"

She buried her face in his shoulder, and soft cries came from her throat.

"And now I'm crying again…"

"It's okay…it's okay to cry." Shinji said, trying to comfort her.

"No, it's not!"

Shinji held her.

"At least you still _can_ cry," he murmured. "At least you still have something precious enough to cry for."

"Don't kid yourself, Shinji. I'm not crying for _you_."

"I wouldn't expect you to…"

Asuka wiped away her tears and sat upright, away from Shinji's arms. She smoothed back her hair and stared into the darkening sky.

"This isn't goodbye, Shinji. Not by a long shot." She said, and got back up to return to the reception.

**Stage XV-B: **_**A**_** Present**

Asuka emerged from Nerv's reception wearing her regular outfit and looking tired.

"Jeez, all that these stupid politicians say is 'I'm sorry, and we'll make sure you guys get to meet again. I was in love, too, once ago.'" She said, sounding slightly touched by the wizened power brokers' sentiments. Shinji buttoned the last button on his school shirt and met with her on the curb. As they walked, she kept on.

"I mean…to think that I'd be in love with _you_!" she said defensively. Shinji, used to her hard exterior, shrugged it off. She adjusted the single A-10 Clip that secured her hair in a neat, short ponytail.

"And just why are you still wearing that shirt?" she demanded. "You've had it since you came out of Instrumentality!"

Shinji smiled.

"I don't know. It's getting tight, but it still kind of fits."

Asuka threw her arms behind her head and trotted on.

"Well, you might want to get fresh clothes. That shirt looks tighter than a Plug Suit!"

"I wash it a lot." He offered lamely.

She growled and grabbed his head.

"Change it anyway! I've never seen you wear anything except your stupid old high school uniform!"

"Ow! Asuka, knock it off!" Shinji winced. "I'll get a new shirt, okay?"

Asuka released him with a snort.

"And you're supposed to be the big man. Did it hurt that much?"

Shinji rubbed his throbbing neck.

"More than you'd think," he grumbled.

After getting home, Asuka immediately set off to the nearby department store. When she got back, she rummaged around a bulging shopping bag and produced a huge pile of men's clothing.

"Here, try it on." Asuka instructed as she tossed a T-Shirt to Shinji, who gawked at the clothes.

"You…bought all of these?"

"Well, I _am_ a _woman_." She winked. Shinji swallowed and contemplated the shirt.

"Well, try it on!" she demanded.

"Right…here?"

Asuka turned around and crossed her arms.

"I won't watch," she promised. "Anyway, you've got nothing to hide."

Shinji blushed furiously and, after making sure that Asuka was turned away, turned around and took off his shirt with some difficulty.

'_It really is getting too small for me…'_

He slipped the new shirt on. It was white, with orange streaks. A simple design, but it looked natural on him.

"And the jeans," Asuka said with her head still turned. "I'll close my eyes, too."

Shinji dug through the pile, and then stopped.

"Um…Asuka, that's going to be too tight…"he said.

"What do you mean?" she asked, alarmed.

Shinji held it up. Asuka blushed in embarrassment. It was a pair of tight, denim short shorts, clearly not meant to be worn by a twenty-year old man.

"Oh…"she moaned. "I couldn't help myself! I haven't shopped for _ages_! And I really need some new clothes…so I decided to…_treat myself to some stuff_…mein gott! It's nothing, okay?"

Instantly, Shinji detected something very, very wrong.

"But you took _my_ wallet…"

Asuka offered a scolded puppy look.

In horror, Shinji dug into the shopping bag. Except for a few shirts, men's jeans and socks, everything in the bulging extra-large shopping bag was clearly feminine. Shinji's head spun as he looked through the assortment of panties, bras, tank tops, dresses, tight jeans, blouses, skirts, several sets of dazzlingly varied swimming suits and brightly colored T-shirts.

And not one of the articles of clothing looked cheap in any way. What little remained of the blood in his face drained when he looked at the sales receipt.

"Can…I have my wallet?" he asked weakly.

Asuka moaned in agony.

"C'mon, Third Child. Think of it as a good-bye present for me…"

"You said _a_ present?"

There was a good fifty items on the impassive list.

Finally relenting, Asuka handed him his limp wallet. After his eighteenth birthday, Nerv had hired him officially and began paying him a rather decent wage, and the wallet had been stuffed full the last time Shinji saw it. Now, all that remained was change and a few measly yens.

"ASUKA…"

She glared.

"It's just some hundred thousand yen or so…you know how little Japan's money is worth. It's nothing!"

"It's my next month's rent, utilities, food, and emergency money…" Shinji said, feeling quite faint.

Asuka looked sincerely apologetic.

"Look, I'm sorry, all right? And it's your fault for not putting that kind of money in the bank. One just reopened, right? Hey, how was _I_ supposed to know?"

Shinji laid himself down on the sofa.

"Whatever. I'm sure Misato or Touji and Kensuke might lend a hand…"

**End Stage XV**


	16. So Long

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XVI: So Long…**

Shinji opened his eyes. He was on the sofa, and Asuka was gone, along with her share of the bag of clothes. He sighed and sat up slowly, worrying about his financial situation. He hadn't really minded Asuka spending his money, but she spent so much…

The doorbell rang. Surprised, Shinji walked over to open the door. Asuka stood there, her head bowed and looking submissive.

"What-Asuka, what are you doing here this early?" Shinji asked, confused.

"Sorry about last night," she said. "Here's the money that I owe you."

She held out her purse. Shinji was startled.

"Look, Third Child, I can't bear owing you anything, especially when we might not see each other again for a while, so take it!" she snapped. The soft look was gone, and she was back to her usual self.

"It's alright, Asuka…" Shinji said, pushing her purse away. "I really don't mind."

"I do!" she said hotly. "I don't like to be indebted to you!"

Shinji hesitated.

"It's really nothing; I'm not short of money. I can still pull out of my savings or borrow from somebody…"

"Hey, don't make my going out to the bank in the dead of night for nothing!"

Shinji yielded and took her purse. He began to count the money.

"It's exactly enough!"

Shinji blushed.

"No! I don't mean that!"

He handed part of the stack back to Asuka.

"Keep it," he said. "I've got enough to cover my bills."

Asuka seemed to go for the money, but pulled her hand back.

"No. I'll be going to Germany soon anyway. I'll probably have to live with my parents, so there's no point hoarding cash. You'll need it more, being the idiot you are. Take it just in case."

Shinji touched her hand.

"Thank you…"he murmured. "You don't have to feel like you owe me. We're friends, right? Friends are supposed to help each other out."

"Yea…_friends_…"

Asuka snatched her empty purse back and marched away. Realizing too late that he'd gotten on her nerves, Shinji tried to chase after her.

"Wait! I didn't mean that! I know-I know what we are to each other!"

Asuka turned back for a moment.

"You…have no idea…" she said, before descending in the elevator.

"I don't understand; why is there such a gap between Nerv's projected expenses and the actual budget?" Misato asked.

"Apparently, ma'am, someone's been siphoning Nerv's funds." The agent said grimly. "We traced the money transfers to a numbered account, but then it simply vanished off the radar. The UN has also reported a dramatic rise in the profits of heavy industries that pertain to military operations. It's as if someone's building an army with money leaked from Nerv's budget."

Misato seethed.

"Nerv is currently focusing its efforts on rebuilding and feeding the world. What kind of person would take resources away from these efforts to build weapons of war?"

The agent cleared his throat.

"Here's a second report: 100% of Seele's known physical money deposits have been emptied by somebody before our people even found them. That's money enough to rebuild two continents that just vanished. The United Arab Emirates, Russia, and China are also telling us about a worrying amount of emigration into northern Siberia. Few of the emigrants have returned, and they told stories about batteries of tests for physical and mental fitness. Apparently, someone over there is pulling resources to begin arming. In addition, the bureaus assigned to watch the keeping of the Universal Nonaggression Treaty of 2019, which, as you know, brought together and secured peace with the remnants of some Pre-3I terrorist organizations, has reported breakups in the more radical groups. These rouge elements have also disappeared into Siberia."

"Isn't Russia doing anything?" Fuyutsuki demanded.

"They do not have the resources, sir, or so they tell us."

"If Russia doesn't have the resources, then we can't either," Fuyutsuki murmured. "On the other hand, that entity is buying up products and driving the economy upwards. Even more people will be unemployed if they are driven out of business, so we can't make any moves on them so easily."

His eyes narrowed.

"We can't trust the Russian government. A powerful group within their territory is creating more jobs for their citizens. They may be relying on them to stabilize their internal economy for now."

Misato cut in.

"Do we still have control of Nerv's satellites?"

"Yes, ma'am," Maya said from the shadows of the Commander's office. "The orbital surveillance satellites are still functioning and respond to the Magi's control."

"Are you suggesting that we pull spy satellites over Russian soil?" Fuyutsuki demanded. "That can be dangerous. The Russians are well capable of detecting them. There's no guarantee as to what that will cause in the international circles."

"There…is a solution," Maya said hesitantly. "The satellites cannot be resupplied for a while. It could be plausible to adjust their orbit to conserve fuel and bring them over Russian territory in the process."

"I don't like it. We'll be doing things under the table again." Misato said.

"Nevertheless, it is necessary that we find out more about this facility, or facilities." Fuyutsuki said grimly. "Major Ibuki, I expect a mission outline delivered onto my desk in 72 hours."

"Yes, sir…"

'_I'm going to be alone again…'_

Asuka zipped her suitcase and surveyed her home for the past weeks once again with tired nostalgia.

"I'll miss this place." She murmured.

Her hand brushed against the single photo in the room. It was a cheap picture taken a year or so ago encased in a cardboard frame. In the picture, she was leaning on Shinji, who had his arms around her waist. Her hands were stretched back, and both of them were laughing, and nothing of the picture showed any of the unhappiness that she feels at the moment.

"Where's that time gone?" She asked herself. The past few years had gone before she knew it, all too quickly, and now she had found herself about to be alone again.

Outside, a car stopped, and a minute later, two Nerv Sector 2 agents entered.

"Miss Soryu, it's time to go." One said.

Asuka trudged over to the impassive men. They took her bag and suitcase and led her down the elevator.

"Your father wants to pick you up at the airport. Is that okay?"

"No. I'll go alone."

"As you wish…"

Asuka blinked an unexpected tear away.

'_I'm crying again…'_

"You guys really don't care, do you?"

As soon as she asked the question, she kicked herself mentally for her stupidity.

'_Of course not…they're Section 2, after all.'_

"We do. We have been shadowing you since you arrived at Japan." One of them said.

Asuka started.

"Our profession requires us to be objective and not be involved in our principle's life emotionally. However, we do care about what you want and what makes you happy. This is a usual result of longtime protection of a single principle."

The armored limousine's door shut, and the engine revved. The automobile moved off with a screech down the road and headed for the international airport. The two guards stayed silent the whole way. Asuka sat without moving, wondering just how much of her life had revolved around this place that she was about to leave.

She looked into the ultramodern airport now pulling into view.

"So long, Japan…"

**End Stage XVI**


	17. Too Late

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XVII: Too Late**

Shinji looked glumly down at the new Plug Suit that was handed to him.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.

The expressionless agents remained silent, and the JSSDF soldier stepped forward. He handed Shinji a thick manila envelope, along with a Nerv uniform, rank pin and new ID card that identified him as "Captain Shinji Ikari", with a strangely high clearance level.

"What's this supposed to mean?" Shinji demanded, fear rising in his throat.

'_Oh, shit!'_

"I don't know, sir." The soldier said. "The information is above my clearance level."

Shinji opened his mouth, and then closed it.

"Excuse us, sir!" the soldier said. "We must now return."

The soldier clicked his heels, saluted and left. One agent remained and handed Shinji a pair of white hair clips. Silently, the man also walked away. As his back disappeared into the stairwell, Shinji remained standing, numb with shock.

'_A Captain…?'_

Shinji looked down at the manila uniform.

How many people had he known wearing that exact same uniform day to day?

How many people wearing this uniform had been the only real family he'd ever had?

And how many had perished on that fateful day, as he stood back and watched the slaughter of Nerv-Japan?

He gripped the plastic bag hard.

"What the hell is this supposed to mean?" he asked the empty, silent air.

His phone rang.

Shinji turned his head, startled.

'_Who knows my number?'_

He picked up after the forth ring. A familiar voice drifted over the line.

"_Guten morgen, _Shinji!"

"What? A-"

"Shush! Don't say my name. I'm on a payphone, but your line might be monitored."

"A-I mean…"

In Berlin, Asuka leaned against the stall and smiled. Shinji's voice was a comfort, something she trusted and knew.

"Hey, what's up?"

Shinji sat down slowly.

"They made me…a Captain…and gave me a new suit…and Nerve Clips."

His hand sneaked to Asuka's old Clip, which hung around his neck.

Asuka stiffened in alarm.

"Mein gott…! That means…"

'_Japan must be reactivating Unit 01…'_

"What should I do…?" he asked.

"What are you, stupid?" she snapped. "Do whatever they tell you to do and figure something out later!"

Shinji did not feel very much comforted.

"Hey, look, idiot, there's going to be nobody _to_ fight, so you don't have to worry about having to hurt people, alright? Just live your damn life like you want to!"

She stared at the shop window in front of her, checking for her agents in its reflection. One of them was sitting on the other side of the street with a mug of beer. She was surprised.

'_Is that just part of the disguise, or do they actually let people drink at work now?'_

Shinji continued.

"Um…I tried calling your parents on the number you left me, but they said you weren't living with them…"

"I got an apartment for myself. I can't bear to be back with them…it brings out too many-"

She swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Never mind… Anyway, see ya later."

She hung up as a Section 2 man strode by, looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

Asuka pushed open the stall door and walked out into the afternoon air. She adjusted her jacket and paused to look into a shop window full of women's clothing. The Sector 2 agent was still tailing her. She cursed, annoyed, under her breath.

'_Do those idiots think that I can't fend for myself here?'_

She walked briskly back to her apartment building, trying to ignore the nostalgia that Shinji's voice had awoken.

'_I'm lonely again.'_

A week before she had left, Asuka and Hikari had sat in the fresh grass in the remains of the GeoFront, contemplating a melted fragment of Eva 02's armor.

"I'll miss you, Hikari." Asuka said.

The brown-haired woman tossed aside a piece of grass and gazed at the mangled metal in front of them.

"I'll miss you, too, Asuka." Hikari said.

Asuka stroked the burnt metal and did not speak.

"So, what are you going to do about Shinji?" Hikari asked.

Asuka tried her best to look cold.

"I don't care."

"Yes, you do."

Asuka stood up and put her hands on her hips.

"Bullshit. He'll just go running off to some other girl when I'm gone. It's not as if our relationship's _serious_."

Hikari raised an eyebrow.

"Asuka, you _know_ that it's serious. You guys have been through so much together. Of course you should be in a serious relationship. C'mon, don't lie to yourself. Just go with your feelings."

Asuka sighed and kept stroking the fragment of armor.

"I know what you heard that day. I know I really like him. But he won't do. He's just not enough of a goddamn _man_! Anyway, I probably won't see him again, so why bother?"

Hikari tilted her head.

"Asuka, don't be so pessimistic. It'll be _fine_."

The redhead quietly touched her single hair clip. Hikari continued.

"He was special, wasn't he? Why would you give him your Clip if he wasn't?"

"I didn't give it to him…I told him to hold on to it until he's brave enough to confront me with his real feelings. Not that crap he throws at me to make me feel good."

"What if that's really how he feels about you…? What if he's already confronted you, and you didn't respond to him?"

Asuka stared at the armor fragment.

"Then…it'll be too late."

Shinji tried to ignore all the twisted emotions that coiled within him as he saw the same gigantic face that had changed his life so.

"Mother…"he whispered.

The new suit was simpler. A clean, practical design that didn't quite feel the same way his old suit had. But it didn't matter, because Evangelion Unit 01 was staring impassively at him from the Cage.

Commander Fuyutsuki ambled up behind him and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, son. They wanted the Eva's power too badly."

"It's not your fault, sir." Shinji replied mechanically.

"At least there's no enemy, for now. You'll be alright."

Shinji's shoulders sagged. The painful memories of 2015 trickled back into his consciousness.

_Rei, Asuka, Misato, Touji, Kensuke…_

_Gendo Ikari…_

_His father, who had abandoned him, who never gave a damn…who seemed to dislike him…_

_But Shinji had sensed the man's own pains…_

_And now he didn't know what to think of him…again._

He leaned on the rails.

"Yui…" Fuyutsuki sighed. "Why does it all have to be like this? You could've chosen a much easier path for humanity."

The machine stared back at the two men coldly.

"Mother…"

20,000 meters over Siberia

The Luftwaffe Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Euro Hawk glided silently over the desolate terrain of northern Siberia. As it exited a bank of clouds, the camera caught a glint of metal on the far horizon. Several minutes later, the UAV arrived at what seemed to be a smaller version of the Nerv pyramid, and several shanties and factories ringed around it. Transport jeeps, trucks and even a rail line busily entered and exited the base's heavily guarded entrance.

A dot suddenly appeared on the radar, and before the startled remote pilot could react, a gray, double-pronged spear shot down from the heavens and speared the aircraft through the middle. With a crackle, the data feed broke off.

**End Stage XVII**


	18. Clouds Gathering

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XVIII: Clouds Gathering**

Asuka strode deftly into the briefing room. Inside, the German Minister of Defense greeted her grimly.

"Bad news, Miss Soryu," he said. "One of our spy UAVs was shot down over Siberia."

Asuka turned her quizzical gaze.

"What does that have to do with me?" she asked.

The minister tapped a key on a laptop, and turned it to face Asuka.

She stifled a cry and jumped. One hand instinctively went to her left eye.

"Mein gott!"

The gray lance that stared at her through the fuzzy image was a monster of her nightmares. Throughout the years after Third Impact, Asuka had awoken screaming and clutching her left eye. Now, when she had finally put her nightmare to rest, it had come back, a stark reality.

The minister nodded.

"It _is_ a Replica Lance of Longinus. There can be no doubt now that I've seen your reaction," he said. "The problem is…who or what threw it?"

"Sir! The new image's been fully enhanced!" a technician called out. "We've just sent it to your station!"

The minister's hands flew across the keyboard and brought up the image. Asuka swallowed back a little scream.

A Mass-Produced Evangelion was poking out of the clouds. Its grotesque, crocodile-like head was gone, however, replaced by a smaller, armored one, like that of a regular Eva. Yet, it still had the looks and feel of the monstrous machines that had brutally ended her life at its pinnacle of happiness.

"This was taken seconds before the Euro Hawk was destroyed." The minister said. He laid a hand on her shoulder. She felt like killing him.

"I'm _so_ sorry, Asuka," he said.

'_Who told you that you could call me that?'_

"I know this must be hard for you, but you must understand our situation." He continued.

'_Don't try to comfort me!'_

"We need your strength now. We need you to do what you were always the best at doing."

'_Spit it out, old man. You need a pilot to save your ass 'because you're scared.'_

Asuka backed away from the man and turned her face.

"I'll do it. I have to, don't I? I'll pilot an Eva."

Her abruptness hit the Minister by surprise. With a tired sigh, Asuka walked out of the door.

"Leave anything I need at my apartment." She said as the door closed.

Nerv-Japan, the Cage, three months later

The gleaming chrome-and-scarlet armor of Full Production Type Evangelion Unit 01 shone in the sun on the deserted island. On a nearby JSSDF destroyer, Misato stared sadly at the spanking new machine.

"Another Evangelion…"she murmured. "We don't even need one, but they built one anyway. This is going to be trouble."

"Attention, all crew, evacuate to your ships immediately. The activation of Unit 01F is about to commence in T minus 20 minutes."

The hydraulic pipes squealed in protest as the locks on Unit 01F were tightened to the maximum. On the shore, Nerv technicians quickly cleared up their stations and packed into hovercrafts and motor boats that sent them over the waves to the cargo vessels offshore. Cranes groaned as they levered a hulking flight pack next to Unit 01F's back. With a shuddering series of clanks, the pack was secured to the Eva's back. The cranes moved back rapidly, and the ground began to rumble as a walker originally intended to carry space shuttles slowly hauled the Eva and all of its activation appendages down a mammoth gravel path.

Shinji sat in the Entry Plug with a melancholy nostalgia.

"It still smells like Ayanami…like mother." He said.

The controls were sleeker, the entire Plug's inside was covered with holographic and LCD displays, rendering a full panoramic view of the surroundings. Shinji disliked it. It made him feel exposed and vulnerable, as if suspended in the air for everyone to see.

"T minus 120 seconds until activation," the invisible speaker intoned. Shinji uncurled and held the control handles.

"Checklist items are all clear; Unit 01F is ready for activation."

"Making all preparations and clearing the activation checklist, as well as readying power prior to actually activating…"Maya said to herself. "It cut Eva's launch time by 240 seconds."

Misato glanced at her.

"What do you think this Eva is for?"

"War." Maya said. "Everything about this rebuilt Eva 01 is made for combat…the lighter, more efficient armor, the stronger muscles, all of the weaponry affixed to the armor and the docking ports for rapidly switching field equipment…it's just a machine of war."

Misato crossed her arms and gazed steadily at the gleaming Evangelion.

"We don't need these things anymore." She said.

'_But there's no stopping them from building more…'_

"T-minus 30 to activation," the AI said.

Maya bent down to her keyboard and began to initiate Unit 01F's central systems.

Light rippled through the dark LCL, and Shinji breathed in deeply as his nerves tingled. Rainbow ripples laced with crackles of electricity surged in, replacing the displays. In a moment, everything returned, along with a baffling amount of text and statistics. A flickering orange crosshair spun into place in front of him, and everything settled into place all around the screens.

"Evangelion Unit 01F Full Production Model has been activated." The AI reported.

Bering Strait, 10 miles off of the coast of Russia

The scarlet ocean sparked like a ruby in the sun. Asuka leaned against the battleship's railing and gazed out at the water. Her thoughts flitted back to the first time she had met Shinji, aboard the USS Over the Rainbow.

_Asuka stood tall on the flying bridge of the super carrier, surveying the Nerv transport helicopter gliding down towards the deck. She wondered how the great Third Child would be like. Certainly, he'd never be as good as _her_._

But he _had_ been.

He had been so much better, in every way.

Asuka sighed and pulled her hat down against the tugging wind. She didn't give a damn about Shinji being better than her. She simply wanted anyone, even him, to be close to her again.

He was better than the nothing that she had now.

Nothing, except for the weapon of mass destruction onboard a nearby cargo transport…

Evangelion Unit 02F, Finalized Production Model Assault Type Evangelion, a machine loaded with combat systems.

Asuka _detested_ it. It felt nothing like _her_ Unit 02; the _real_ one.

"Well, it's still Mama…"she murmured to herself.

Her watch beeped. It was time. She let go of the rails and began to walk towards the bulkhead to the battleship's superstructure.

'_Heh…heh…I'm supposed to use an Evangelion to fight other humans. Ironic…'_

Seele-Siberia

Miyoko sat silently inside Unit 14's Entry Plug, waiting for the small LCD clock on her Suit to run down to zero.

"Asuka Langley Soryu…"she mouthed. "You're not invincible; not even close."

**End Stage XVIII**


	19. My Life is My Own

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XIX: My Life is My Own**

"Nerv-Germany has made a move." The agent reported.

Fuyutsuki contemplated the holographic chart that lay before him.

"To be outside Russian surveillance, their transport fleet would have to stay on the U.S. side of the Bering Strait." He said. "Alaska's not yet shored up enough to detect their fleet, so they would be able to carry out their plan without a hitch…"

He paused.

"But just what are they trying to do?"

Misato enlarged an image on a nearby screen and brought it over.

"Look at this, sir." She said. "That's a Pre-3I Evangelion transport ship. It's been modified significantly, but it's still obviously carrying an Eva."

The head of Section 2 nodded.

"As part of the treaty, Nerv-Berlin has taken back Unit 02's Core and remains. It is very much possible that they may have reconstructed the Eva."

"Just like we did…" Misato murmured.

Unit 02F's AT Field whisked her off of the carrier deck and through the air. Asuka snapped the machine around and shot her right through the five escort MiGs' formation. The frigid air howled around the Eva's non-aerodynamic construction as she pierced the low, thick cloud banks.

Asuka hoisted the Eva's X-21 Positron Rifle and tucked it under the Eva.

"Expanding AT Field," she said. The AT Field twisted and expanded, forming an egg-shaped cocoon about the Eva. On cue, her escorts fell back to their carriers to avoid detection, and Asuka slid into the cloud bank and smashed her unit through the sound barrier. She grimaced as she was slammed back into the seat. The clouds tore apart around Unit 02F's AT Field and rippled away into wisps of disintegrated water vapor. The Siberian coastline emerged from the gloom and grew rapidly as Unit 02F dashed towards it at Mach 1.5.

Asuka felt the vibrations of the god-machine under her. It was out of tune; nothing like the harmony of body and spirit that she had felt with her old Eva during its final stand.

"This junkyard is nothing like _my_ Unit 02!" she hissed.

In a moment, the coast came close enough for Asuka to slow down the Eva back under sonic speed and hurtle towards the expanding ground.

Once frozen, Siberia had been thawed by the Second Impact and the global warming that had resulted from it. Thus, a mountain of dirt tore free and flew into the air as Unit 02F's feet carved through a small patch of green.

Asuka crouched and held up her rifle.

"AT Field scans negative." She murmured. "It's not here yet-"

Her radar screamed a warning tone. The next moment, she felt a shuddering impact on her AT Field.

"Huh?"

A Replica Lance vibrated against her already wavering Field. The glowing octagons wavered, and then gave out.

Asuka screamed.

Back in his apartment, Shinji stirred a frying pan lightly. The aroma of the cooking food wafted throughout the small rooms of the home, saturating each corner with a mouth-watering scent.

He sighed and tipped his head back, remembering back to the times when he, Asuka and Misato all ate together at one small table. Those had been beautiful days, and they've gone by all too quickly for him. Now, his cooking was many times better than it was years ago, and yet, it tasted like candle wax at his empty table.

He tipped the pan's contents into a dish and brought it to his tiny living room.

"Still an unfamiliar ceiling," he muttered as he stared at the hanging fluorescent light. "So empty…"

Unit 02F's impaled shoulder pylon crashed to the ground, purged from the Eva's body. Asuka leapt away from where she had stood, and the pylon exploded into a rainbow of sparks, sliced apart by a positron beam that came out of nowhere.

"What the hell's going on?" Asuka yelled. "I'm still not getting a-"

She froze as she saw the Eva perched a distance away.

'_He turned off his AT Field!'_

Without hesitation, Asuka fired her positron rifle at it.

'_Let's see you handle _this_ without an AT Field!'_

An AT Field materialized from thin air, deflecting the beam.

'_He's only turning on his Field at the last second!' _Asuka realized.

The Eva snapped out four wings and lifted itself off of the ground. The Replica Lance shot back into its hand, and the four wings rippled back, firing the Eva out Lance-first at Unit 02F. Asuka yelped and dashed sideways, barely avoiding being skewered. As she did, she fired a barrage of missiles from her remaining pylon. The other Eva shrugged off the explosions and dove at Unit 02F's stomach with Lance held forwards. In desperation, Asuka dropped her rifle and clapped her Eva's hands over the Lance's flat blades, pushing the Lance back. The ground tore, and house-sized dirt clods flew through the air as the two Evas struggled against each other. Unit 02F's hand slipped, and the Lance speared deep into the Eva's rib cage. Asuka's scream of pain was silenced by the gurgle of blood that filled her lungs. She staggered back and fell to the ground. The other Eva pounced, ripping out the spear and bringing gouts of blood shooting out of Unit 02F's chest. Asuka wrapped her arms around her chest and gasped for air. Fortunately, the mingled LCL directly oxygenated her blood. But the sheer pain was soon overtaking her. Unit 02F fell to its knees as the other Eva cleaved the Replica Lance down on its head.

_The little girl ran through the wreckage of a city. Her long, red hair flowed out behind her, with her neat little drew providing a sharp relief against the background._

"_Hey, Mama!" she yelled._

"_Asuka! Come here!" a female voice answered nearby. In the sky, a meteoroid ripped through the wine-red clouds._

_An unseen train rumbled by._

_A girl huffed as she rested in the torn street. Her clothes were dirtied, and she looked unhappy and frustrated. However, she shook herself hard and kept running towards that sweet voice that called out to her._

_An unseen train rumbled by._

_The teen nursed her swollen ankle. Her once pretty skin had begun to show signs of wear. No longer was her face happy. She was anxious, nervous and afraid. Yet she shook the weak emotions off and kept on running._

"_Asuka! Come here!"_

_She ran towards that voice. It was silky and soft, like that of a Siren. She wanted it to heal her, to cleanse her soul, to tell her, "good job."_

"_Asuka, come and find your own happiness," a boy's voice said. "Everyone here cares. Just let us in and we'll make you happy."_

_The teen pushed aside the hand that was held out to her and followed the voice of the Siren._

_An unseen train rumbled by._

_A young woman knelt on a pile of rubble. Her hair was unkempt, and her dress ragged. Long scratches and gashed ran from her thighs to her feet, which bore only a pair of torn loafers._

"_Mama…"she moaned, staring at the dismal scene. Her legs were weak and hurting, her entire body unresponsive. The hand that had been held out for her was gone. It was too late to return. She had to go on._

_An unseen train rumbled by._

_The woman stared at the hanging, mummified skeleton. Its two hollow eye sockets laughed at her, and the frozen grin made fun of her efforts._

"_Asuka! Come here!" the Siren whispered._

_In desperation, the woman twirled. The last scraps of her thin rags tore off, and her bandaged body came into view. Naked, mutilated, wrapped with bloody cloth. She stumbled over to the source of the voice, hoping to find her promised happiness._

_A decayed toy monkey cackled mournfully, hanging from a rope attached to an unseen rope. The horrified woman fell back. As she did, her already weak eyes caught a glimpse of hell itself over her. Gigantic white monsters screamed as they flew in vulture-like circles over her, holding long, cruel lances that seemed to follow the woman's every faltering step._

_A flash of gray sliced through the world, coming down…down…down…_

_Down she went, into the gaping chasms of her heart. A soul tormented by insecurity screamed somewhere inside the boiling magma, and dark, squid-like monstrosities played around the woman, emanating wails of laughter._

"_Too late!" they yelled gleefully. "You're too late! You're too late to ever be happy again!"_

_A hand shimmered in the blistering liquid. That same soft, weak hand that hung over her, piercing her hell. It hung there, motionless, beckoning._

"_Asuka…don't die. I won't let you; live, child, live for me."_

A drop of blood struck an invisible pool of water, and a ripple of crimson came silently into existence.

Miyoko gasped when she felt a jarring impact. Her entire machine shook as the other Eva gripped her Lance with the heels of its palms. Warning signs flared up all around the panoramic cockpit. An abnormally powerful AT Field had suddenly appeared, and her Eva couldn't hold out against it. Her opponent's Eva's face filled her field of view, and its helmet snapped open to reveal four eyes underneath its face plate.

"What the _fucking hell_ is this?" she roared. Eva Unit 14 crashed back into the dirt as it was violently kicked in the gut, and the Replica Lance's blades shattered into thousands of crystalline fragments between Unit 02F's hands.

Asuka released herself from the ball into which she had curled in fear.

"Not too late…Mama's still with me. My life is still _mine_." She growled, ignoring the excruciating pain in her side.

"And _you_ won't take that away from me!"

The other Eva staggered to its feet and launched backwards, flying away from the scene of action. Asuka hissed in anger and dashed out after it. The Eva turned, pulled a positron rifle off of a rack on its back, and shot at Unit 02F. The beam that bounced harmlessly off of Asuka's AT Field ignited the remains of the meadow into a spectacular fireball, and violently hurled Unit 02F onto her backside.

"FUCK!" Asuka screamed, clutching her side as bubbled poured out of her wound.

"Pilot Soryu, fall back!" the gruff voice of the mission commander ordered. "There is a Russian satellite approaching this area. Get yourself back before we're discovered!"

"But I've got him! I can still win!" Asuka screeched through gritted teeth.

"That's an order! Even if we do destroy this Eva, there would be serious international repercussions should Russia discover you. We're out of time!"

"I'm not backing down!" Asuka snapped.

"Then call it a strategic retreat, you silly girl! This is a direct order; fall back!" the man roared.

Reluctantly, Asuka turned back, retrieved her rifle and headed back, after glaring furiously at the video feed.

"All right; whatever you say." She wheezed as LCL gurgled through the hole in her ribs. Darkness began to seep into her field of view. Gasping in pain, she stumbled to the edge of the coast and collapsed headfirst into the sea.

'_Mama…I tried, okay?'_

**End Stage XIX**


	20. Blind Date X I Do Care

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XX-A: Blind Date**

Nerv-Japan

"The Russians nearly caught them," Fuyutsuki said. "How careless; if the pilot of the new Unit hadn't been so quick to react, there would have likely been a war. And a war is exactly what the world can't take."

Misato traced the holographic map.

'_That kind of attack…it's so foolhardy and brash…That's Asuka all right.'_

"Commander, I think that the pilot of the undesignated Evangelion must be Asuka. Nobody else can use an Eva in such a…"

'_Foolish…? No…Asuka's no fool.'_

"…deft way…"

"Your observation is noted." Fuyutsuki said drily.

"It is necessary that we gather further data on this Eva." The Section 2 chief said. "If Colonel Katsuragi is so…sure of the pilot's identity, then it would be possible to use the Third Child or another of the Second's former friends to gather intelligence from the Second."

"That's absolutely out of the question!" Misato snapped. "We can't use the kids as tools again; especially not when we're only trying to get an advantage over other people!"

"It may be…necessary." Fuyutsuki sighed. "Colonel, the Chief's suggestion makes sound sense. If anything, it'll get the kids another opportunity to be together again…I'll decide on the matter."

"Yes, sir…" Misato said, not accepting the final decision and throwing a laser-sharp look at the impassive Section 2 Chief.

Asuka's apartment

Asuka nursed the thick bandages around her chest. She grimaced unhappily.

"That was so stupid!" she complained to herself. "It wasn't _fair_! The guy snuck up on me!"

The empty room answered her with silence.

"Ach!"

Asuka threw a pillow against the wall. It bounced off and lay on the floor, seemingly protesting. Reluctantly, Asuka slid off of her bed and picked it up. As she did, she glanced into the mirror. A bedraggled and annoyed woman stared back at her. Her fiery hair hung over her waist, as it always did, albeit with only one old A-10 clip.

She adjusted the clip. It was useless to her now, and she wore it only because…she had always worn her clips. Back in her girlhood, it had signified her place in the world as an Eva Pilot. Now, it reminded her of the happy life that she dreamed of every night. Once, a long time ago, she had thought that what the clips represented was happiness that she would earn, but that dream had been shattered just as long ago. Perhaps it was a delusion all along.

…Perhaps…

"SHUT UP!" Asuka roared at herself. "Mein gott! Du bist wie ein Idiot handeln!"

She sat back onto the bed and lay down gingerly, minding her side.

Her telephone rang.

GeoFront Ruins

"Please, say hello to dear Sakura and little Choko for me." The ponytailed man said silkily.

"They are not aware of your existence." The Chief said stonily.

"What a shame. They're such a heavenly pair, mother and daughter." The man smirked. "Here; get them something nice for me."

He handed over an envelope full of cash.

"Further payments will be made for you along with good service…"

"I don't even know what you're trying to do." The Chief said.

"It doesn't concern you." The man replied. Having delivered the payment, he added, "Wouldn't it be a shame if your beautiful wife and daughter would chance upon…an accident?"

The crunch of money could be heard as the Chief gripped the manila envelope. The paper creased and tore under the hand of the weathered agent.

"I wouldn't tear that if I were you." The other man advised as he faded into the gloom. "There's a lot of paper to be carried in there."

The Section 2 Chief stared after his visitor with crackling hatred.

But still, the money made his wife smile. It made his family happy.

"Bastard…" he scolded himself. "You worthless scum; what kind of man are you, to have to betray your country and the people you were supposed to protect to provide for the family that put its trust in you, as a father and husband?"

Moodily, he stalked off back to Nerv. Things will have to wait to be sorted out. For now, Sakura and Choko's happy faces made his shame bearable; somewhat.

Tokyo-4 International Airport; Several months later

The Luftwaffe transport glided down innocuously into an empty runway reserved for the military. The moment its jets stopped humming, it was towed into a private hangar away from prying eyes. The gate hissed shut smoothly, and the hangar's fluorescent lights blazed on.

"Misato, what is this?" Shinji asked, confused. "Isn't that a German air force transport?"

"Of course it is! What else could it be, idiot?" a sharp feminine voice cracked like a whip across the hangar.

Asuka Langley Soryu hobbled out of the transport on a crutch.

"Well, what are you doing, just standing around?" she said. "Help me down!"

Still dumbfounded, Shinji found himself hauling four suitcases and shouldering two different duffle bags. Staggering under the weight, he stared in shock when Asuka lifted her arm and made to lean on him for support.

"Asuka?" he managed to gasp as the woman leaned her weight onto him. In an instant, Shinji collapsed onto the ground, while Asuka's crutch shot out to snag the edge of the plane's door, just barely keeping her on her feet.

"Ow!" she winced, tittering on the thin aluminum stick. "Damn it, idiot! Hold me up!"

The idiot in question was buried in a mountain of bags and suitcases. An arm struggled through.

"Asuka…help…" a muffled voice moaned.

"You dork! If you broke any of my stuff…I'll kill you!"

Shinji gasped for air as his face was freed from three bulging suitcases. As he sat up, he gazed in amazement at the young woman that had just lifted all three suitcases with one arm, while still huffing and leaning on a crutch. By then, Nerv employees had ascended up the mobile stairs and relieved the pair of their luggage.

Shinji got to his feet.

"Is that…really you?" he asked.

"That's a dumb question. Who else could it be?"

Asuka spun her crutch and tapped Shinji hard on the head.

"Idiot…"

"Asuka, that's the third time you've called him an idiot since you landed in Japan. Relax; this is a surprise for him." Misato said amiably.

"Well, _hello_, Misato." Asuka said drily. "So, what's this about? I find it hard to believe that the old geezers in Berlin decided to hold a blind date for me and Shinji."

"Of course…it's related to work." Misato laughed. "But it's good to see you again, Asuka."

The younger woman smiled a self-important smile and hobbled to Misato's side. They linked arms, and descended the stairs together, chatting happily about each other's everyday life, while Shinji tagged along, looking miserable. To anyone who did not know them, they could have been a family, except, of course, for the obvious differences in appearance.

"Pardon me; I hate to say this, but sir…" a soldier behind Shinji said as they walked away from the transport.

"What is it?"

"…You fail at life…sir…"

**Stage XX-B: I Do Care**

"She was all yours, man!" the soldier laughed. "And you just completely embarrassed yourself in front of her!"

Shinji stared apprehensively at the mug of beer that sat on the greasy counter. Men all around him drank noisily while talking and laughing merrily. At the bar, a squad of soldiers surrounded Shinji and his friend.

"Aww man! You guys missed it!" the obviously drunk soldier chortled. "She just came out of that plane on a crutch and threw all her luggage at this dude."

He elbowed Shinji in the side.

"And when he picked her stuff up, she just leaned right on him, and he just dropped!"

He hiccupped.

"Funniest shit I ever saw; the girl left him, too; left with the Colonel and didn't even look back."

Sympathetic tittering went through the small crowd, and men took turns patting Shinji on the back and offering him more beer.

The bar's door crashed open. Everyone froze as Asuka walked in stormily, holding on to her crutch. Her jacket and jeans were wet through, and her bright hair was plastered to her face. Apparently, there was a thunderstorm outside that the din of the bar had drowned out.

"There you are!" she cried. "I've been looking all over for you!"

Asuka cast a disdainful glance at a pair of prostitutes, frozen in the corner.

"So this is where you've been," she said. "Section 2 wouldn't say a word, so I had to look for you myself."

She parted the huddle of soldiers and stuck her hand out.

"Time to go home, Shinji," Asuka sighed.

"Why do you care?"

"What-what do you mean, why do I care?" she yelped.

Shinji sat up and faced her.

"You don't give a damn anymore, do you?" he snarled. "Did Misato put you up to this again?"

Asuka cringed. Her hand wavered, and she looked as if she wanted to cry.

"Just…please don't bother me again. I'm sorry." Shinji mumbled. "I'm not worth it…"

Her hand trembled, and slowly fell back. Water streamed from her hair, forming a small puddle on the ground.

"I…do care."

She turned and hobbled out of the bar as quickly as she could on her crutch.

Shinji gasped and jumped up.

"Asuka! Wait-"

The doors of the bar slammed shut again.

The sound of the rain faded away.

Shinji was alone again.

**End Stage XX**


	21. Reunions II

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XXI: Reunions II**

The rain splashed over the street as Shinji raced through the deluge. Ahead, he could hear a metallic click and someone crying.

Asuka froze when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Someone stood behind her.

"Shinji…"

The man felt like a boy again, listening to Asuka as she raged in misery.

"I'm sorry…"

"You always say that!"

She winced as her side began to hurt. Shinji held her shoulders and leaned his head against her neck.

"What the hell are you doing?" she demanded.

He did not speak, but took out her old Clip from around his neck and handed it to her.

Asuka closed her fingers over the smooth plastic.

"Why?" she asked. "Am I that repulsive?"

Shinji shook his head and held her tightly.

"I guess I'll never be as nice and sweet as Wonder Girl…" she murmured.

"It doesn't matter…"

Asuka pulled away and began to walk off. Shinji followed her silently.

"Don't say anything else," she warned. As angry as she was, blaming Shinji had never worked. He simply could not step up and be a man. There was no point trying.

Asuka limped on; water sloshed down her clothes and onto the ground.

Shinji caught up.

"I know what you're going to say," Asuka said before Shinji could open his mouth. "There's no need to waste your breath. It doesn't matter; as long as you get it."

She trapped him with her cane and threw her arms around his neck, burying herself into a deep kiss.

"Idiot…" she muttered, snuggling into his neck. "I was worried; you were missing all day long."

Shinji held her gingerly, still reeling from the conversation. Asuka gripped him tighter. Hesitantly, he wrapped her in his arms.

The cane clattered to the ground, splashing a small puddle of water against the sidewalk, and Shinji found himself being kissed by Asuka again, much more passionately this time. Feeling the sting of the cold rain on his flaming cheeks, he led her quickly under the protection of the awning of a nearby shop.

"Mmm…that's better…" she mumbled. "Don't be a dork and go wandering off without telling somebody."

"Sorry…"

Nerv-Boston

The dark tunnels of Nerv Boston glowed with fluorescent light. The woman being rushed through the tunnel was white with fear, and the little child clutched her mother's hand.

"Where are we-" she began.

"Shush!" Nerv-Japan's Section 2 Chief admonished. "It's better that you don't know."

"Daddy, where are you taking mommy and me? You promised we'd go to the theme park!" the child whined.

"Quiet!" the man snapped. "We can go to the park later; after daddy finishes his business with a very, very bad man."

The woman whimpered in fear.

"Be careful; don't do it if it's stupid, dear," she implored.

"It's for your safety, and I'll take care. Don't worry; I won't leave you."

A light flashed in the tunnel. It blinked three times, kept on for a few seconds and blinked three times more. The chief sighed.

"Go with the man with the light. His 'name' is Gary. He's my long-time friend and colleague, and he'll keep you guys safe until I deal with this…shady character."

He leaned down and kissed his wife on the lips and his daughter on the forehead.

"Be brave, okay? You're daddy's the world's best spy; he'll be alright."

"How very touching," Lloyd's voice drifted lazily from the end of the tunnel. "Your friend was just as loyal and sentimental, until I plied some…tricks of the trade. Unfortunately, I am not such a saint; you took my money, you tried to backstab me, and the consequences will follow. How _unfortunate_ it is that your family is here, too."

Shinji's apartment

Shinji shivered in the brisk morning air. Someone had taken his blanket away, and he had woken up shaking with cold. The windows were open, filling the room with a frigid breeze. It was cold, but refreshing nonetheless. Shinji turned from the scathing winds and sat back down on the bed next to a sleeping Asuka. In the night, she had stolen his blanket, with which she was now tucked in and wrapped.

Gently, Shinji pried apart a part of the blanket. Sensing the change in temperature, she rolled over and tucked her head against his arm.

"Wake up, Asuka," he whispered.

Slowly, her sleep-weary eyes opened, their azure irises glinting in the morning light.

"I was finally having a _good_ dream," she complained. "You interrupted it."

"We have to face reality in the end," he said thoughtfully.

"The dreams are still more pleasant. Now, go and make breakfast."

Miyoko stared after Lloyd's shadow as it began to disappear into his room.

"Wait!" she cried.

"Yea?" he asked brusquely. He looked jetlagged.

"Um…"

How could she answer the man who had saved her, taken care of her and been like a second father to her?

"I'm sorry…about the fight," she whimpered.

"Don't bother me right now; I have work to do!" he snapped.

The door shut with a loud clang. Miyoko's eyes began to water.

"Wait…Lloyd, don't leave me out here…" she implored in a choking voice. "I'm sorry, okay?"

The heavy steel door remained impenetrable to sound.

Sadly, she began to walk back towards her room. Lately, work had burdened Lloyd to the point where he even refused to spend time with _her_.

Especially after she butchered the attempt to destroy the new Eva…

Miyoko slammed her room's door shut and plunged onto her bed. Tears began to roll down her cheeks.

'_Was it my fault?'_

She stared at the impassive steel walls. Miserably, she rolled onto her back and snuggled under her cold blanket. Her body still bore scars from that violent night, when she'd first met Lloyd, and the flirtatious flames that had marked her careless adolescence had died out there, on the cold, wet earth…

Until now…

"Damn it!" she yelled, covering her head with her pillow. After a while lying down alone, her eyes closed, and she drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

_The girl was shivering. The men had left, and the knife lodged in her side burned with pain. Pain was everywhere; her breasts hurt, her skin burned, and her thighs were speckled with blood…_

_Tears were still pouring out of her eyes, and she felt like dying; dying, and just ending all the pain._

_Not yet, though; she did not want to die yet. The men who had violated her had gloated as they defiled her. They had gloated of their power and strength, and had did all that they could to make her feel low and dirty._

_Death was not an option until punishment has been dealt._

_She could then die, and fade from the Earth…as if she was never there. She would be forgotten, unnoticed, and safe, stashed away in some common grave somewhere, where nobody would know who or what she was, where she could just fade away…_

Asuka tumbled out of the sofa. It was him again; the Chinese marine who'd thanked her for killing him.

"_You kids are__still__our last hope.__"_

A tear swelled up in her eye.

"I wonder where his family is now…" she murmured out loud. The man's face, ravaged by the incandescent flames of the carrier's flaming requiem, burned brightly in her mind's eye. For years, she had tried to forget, but in the end…that would just be wrong of her.

She slipped her hand down the thick row of bandages at her side.

"So much for the last hope…"

**End Stage XXI**


	22. The Attack

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XXII: The Attack**

With a groan, the Cage's gargantuan bolts slid into place, holding Evangelion Unit 02F secure. Along with the steel, Misato felt a lump of unease screw into her heart.

"Somebody arranged for the transfer of both pilot and machine from Germany," she said.

Maya lowered her clipboard.

"What could be happening? I can't contact any of our insiders in Berlin."

Technicians swarmed off of the Eva, having finished their work.

Maya motioned for Misato to follow, and the two women walked off to a discreet corner, free from the bustling mechanics.

"Listen," Maya said. "A while back, one of my colleagues in Berlin phoned me. All she said was, 'they're coming; it's not safe anymore.' Then she hung up, and I never heard from her again. Asuka and Unit 02 came just a week after."

Misato began to walk.

"That's strange; what do you think could be happening?"

"According to the treaty, a country's government is allowed to build and maintain an Eva within its Nerv branch as long as the entire Nerv network is aware of the presence of the Eva, and Nerv's data is restricted strictly to Nerv, but…"

Images of the massacred Nerv employees on January 1st, 2016 rose to both minds, bringing shivers.

"'_It's not safe anymore…_'" Misato mused. "Could their security have been somehow compromised?"

"I don't know," Maya said. "I tried to check up on the Berlin Magi via the shared network, but some powerful firewall was blocking even my authenticated access probe; something's definitely wrong there."

"What does it have to do with transferring Unit 02?"

"Perhaps…it's to protect it?" Maya suggested. "If Berlin's security was compromised, then the intruders could only be after Unit 02; it would explain why the Berlin Magi have been 100% firewalled from the internet; every access port closed, every data request rejected. They've isolated themselves from the world."

"If Germany's vulnerable, then so are we," Misato said with a sinking heart. "Maya, get you people to clean up all unnecessary data from the Magi and store them in a partition apart from the part running the city. Make sure that you separate all data and keep the sensitive information under strict control; segregate access to Eva-related material to top clearance level _only_. I'll take care of eliminating personnel from restricted areas. We can't fall if Berlin caves in."

Seele-Siberia Base

Lloyd watched as two clueless workers dumped three body bags, two big, one small, into the inferno of the incinerator. The chief had been a loyal spy, and trained to top-notch quality, but even the best of spies…had their weaknesses.

The plastic shriveled away from the now charred corpses, and before the workers could close the incinerator door, Lloyd shot them both. Their lifeless bodies tumbled down, joining the people that they've just dumped. Frowning from the heat blasting out of the opened doors, Lloyd kicked the panel that slammed the stainless steel bulkheads shut, sealing off the intolerable heat and stench.

"Now…we only need Unit 01 to fulfill the Lilin's destiny…!"

Laughing at himself, he picked up the glass of Margarita that he had left on a nearby bench, and strode out slowly, sipping the excellently mixed drink and enjoying his brief time off. Perhaps he'll even entertain that girl a little; more or less useless as she was, Lloyd had taken a liking to her.

'_And that dazzlingly perfect skin is quite lovely.'_

Her toes sank in the soft sand. Few people frequented this beach after Third Impact, and the abandoned area had gone back to its natural state, save for the crimson water.

The patch of sand where they had lain together that night had not changed much. Asuka crouched down and felt the grains with the tips of her fingers; the same fingers that had risen from the sand years earlier, shaking and covered in bandages.

"It's so gloomy," Mana said quietly. "Feels like a graveyard…"

"Maybe it is…"

'_I died here; that hateful part of me. This is where it lies…'_

Its grave mark, the downed Mass-Produced Evangelion, loomed over the two women.

"So, what've you been doing these past few years?" Asuka asked.

Mana shrugged helplessly.

"I'm just like you, Asuka. I've just been going back to the old job; y'know, _that thing_…"

"Of course…"

Nerv-Germany

Lloyd strode urgently down the corridor, gun in hand. Small wisps of smoke flowed out of its barrel, tinting the air with the smell of gunpowder.

Machine guns opened up behind him, and guards blocking his path fell with surprised gasps, their backs perforated by bullets. A squad of thickset men dressed in Nerv uniforms rushed forwards, AK-47s in hand. A laugh shook Lloyd's chest, followed by a choking laugh, finally exploding into a maniacal laugh.

"It has begun at last, the beginning of the _true_ end!"

An RPG shredded the bulkhead sealing off the Berlin Cage. Automatic fire poured into the area, and screams could be heard throughout the hangar.

"Get ready to transport the Eva!" he ordered.

"Sir, there is…nothing in here!" a soldier stammered. "The Evangelion is gone!"

Lloyd whirled in shock.

'_So it's true! Eva Unit 02…God damn that Defense Minister! And they got it out right under my nose, even with Massachusetts and Hamburg staring down their necks.'_

He quickly ran through a list of Nerv Branches to which the Eva could have been shipped to. America, Russia, China, Germany…every location was in his shadow…

"It's at Tokyo-4!"

Shigeru Aoba shivered. Nerv-Germany's Magi show absolutely nothing wrong, which was very, very wrong. Down for months, completely blacked out, and shut down, only to return, seemingly unhurt and unchanged.

His high-level colleagues, however, have almost all disappeared; everyone connected to Project E has been disappeared, replaced by hordes of unknowns.

He scrambled to check on the other Nerv branches. None have come out of the secluded state that the entire Nerv network has, base by base, retreated into.

There was only one possibility, and that was an organized attack designed to separate and eliminate each branch separately.

Slowly, he picked up the secure phone, which felt considerably less secure now.

"Commander, I'd like you to see this," he said. "And may I request permission to increase security measures around the Children?"

Fuyutsuki sounded frustrated and angry.

"Not possible; I'll come see whatever it is, but Section 2's unable to operate beyond basic procedures at the moment."

"What happened?"

"That can't be mentioned on this line. Just make sure that you reassign the Children's security to only those you trust."

Crumbs tinkled silently onto the plate. Shinji handed a half of the loaf to Asuka and ladled out stew. Quiet aroma breezed through the window curtains, accompanied by spare cries of nocturnal animals.

The carving knife slid deftly down the side of the roast, slicing through sizzling meat. Droplets of fat squirted out of the cut, splattering onto the ceramic surface to burst in fragrant bubbles. Asuka breathed in deeply, smiling and leaning towards Shinji's direction. Shinji passed her a generous slice along with a piece of lemon. He uncorked a bottle of wine. The glittering liquid sparkled in the flickering light of a set of candles and splashed down the walls of the glass.

He handed Asuka the glass, and she took a sip, staining her lips with a rich red.

"All systems check; A-10 nerve connection has been established. Synchronization rate is at 105.33%."

"Roger; switching controls to Unit 14."

Miyoko sat back and settled in her seat.

"This is Unit 14; I have confirmation of controls."

"Understood; Evangelion Unit 14, you are cleared for launch."

Lloyd sat back and watched as the Evangelion was lifted onto the launch pad.

"What an interesting girl," he remarked.

"Bastard…what are you going to do?" the battered old man next to him hissed.

"My _dear_ Director, I intend to carry out the true plans of Seele. The old men screwed up; Third Impact could never be carried out by that broken boy of theirs. Miyoko, on the other hand…"

"And what of the prototypes you took?"

"Assistance; that is all," he said. "And thank you for your cooperation."

Two men dragged the Director of Nerv-Berlin out of the bridge. The pneumatic door hissed shut.

The PA announced, "All systems check for Type M squadron."

Miyoko's snort carried flawlessly over the comm. line.

"Are you serious? Those cheap knockoffs are coming along, too?"

"You're too valuable to lose…Miyoko. Take the backup."

Nerv-Japan Command Center

Hyuga stared at his screen. It was a single line of text:

_Moscow, Berlin, Hamburg, Beijing, Massachusetts and Boston have all fallen. They're coming for you._

His phone rang, and he picked it up with shaky hands.

"Hyuga, raise a Type-666A Firewall!" Misato yelled through the line. "Technical is reporting hacking attempts by multiple Magi from Berlin, Beijing, Boston, Hamburg and another unknown site; it's goddamn massive!"

_They're coming for you…_

"Yes ma'am!"

Type-666A, the firewall developed from Dr. Ritsuko Akagi's Type-666, had one purpose: completely eliminating contact to the core constituents of Magi Casper, the last line of cyber-defense Nerv-Japan possesses. Melchior and Balthasar simultaneously rerouted city functions to the City Council's computers and focused all their computing power on repelling and counterattacking the hackers with an easy, efficient DOS retaliation. Technicians flooded into the Magi area, yelling at the top of their lungs. Fear was rampant; nobody has forgotten the attack of 2016.

A single gunshot rang across the space.

"Calm down!" Misato roared. "There's nothing to fear! You're protected by not one but _two_ Evangelions. 2016 will _not_ be repeated!"

**End Stage XXII**


	23. I'm Counting on You

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XXIII:**** I'm Counting on You**

They hadn't done much that night; she had been too tired, too hurt. Lying under the blanket, both had slipped off to sleep, listening to the pounding rain.

The past night had gone differently. They still lay in the same bed that Asuka had crawled into that first night, when he had carried her home through the rain. They still cuddled like they did, but…

'_She did insist…'_

He rolled over and hooked his arm around the waist of the girl. Asuka kept sleeping.

Shinji ran his hand absentmindedly over her, feeling under his palms the toned, smooth muscles rippling under her soft skin. It has been a while since they shared intimacy on this level; not since Third Impact, in fact. They'd been so far apart this whole time.

He leaned over her and wrapped the blanket around both their shoulders. She was warm, smooth; tragically beautiful. His hand moved over her until it found the scar of that gunshot, still bumpy and discolored; a reminder of their violent past.

"Hands off, pervert," she mumbled. Instead of moving away, Shinji hooked his hands around her breasts, fondling the soft, perky mounds, while caressing her backside with his other.

"Mmm…!"

And in a moment, she was on him again, pouncing like a lioness upon her prey. She locked her knees around his hip and forced him down.

"Again already…?"

"There's nothing better to do, right?"

Shinji's hands found her thighs, and pushed them further apart. She arched her back and pushed her face against his. His hands slipped between her legs.

"If you insist…" he grumbled. "I thought you didn't like it the first time."

"Are you stupid? Of course not; it was my first time!"

"Err…"

"Forget about it…" she said.

Of course, that was just how Asuka was. Shinji mentally shrugged and proceeded to make love to her. She always squirmed under him, constantly complaining about every little detail. When they were both satisfied, though, she was the first to come back for more.

His heart still pounding from their climax, Shinji slowly ran his hand through her hair, feeling the heat of their bodies intertwining under the blanket.

'_So this is what it's like to make love.'_

Outside the window, small birds chirped merrily. For a moment, it seemed like nothing could go wrong in his life.

His phone rang.

International airspace, 600 kilometers off the coast of Japan

"Confirmed attachment of Lance Pods; all controls are functioning normally."

Unit 14 sagged a little under the weight of the pods and the Mass-Produced Lances of Longinus Replicas they contained. The agile pods each carried a shortened Replica Lance that it launched electromagnetically, serving as mobile cruise weapons. Each also had its own set of Vulcan guns and missiles attached, and were completely computer-controlled. They were heavy, but their power made her feel better.

From the edge of her field of view, a sleek black Evangelion streaked past on newly refueled rockets. It was followed by an entire squadron of nine, each exactly alike, bristling with weapons.

She sneered. The Americans had built these replicas of the Mass Produced Evas in secret, without a Soul in its Core, thanks to nagging human rights restrictions in the Constitution. The Evas, therefore, lacked a true A.T. Field, a nd only the Americans' idiotic ingenuity saved them from being utterly useless. Miyoko did not understand or give a damn about the engineers' talk of frequency-controlled particle resonance, spacial shifts and the rest of the techno babble. But from what she could understand, these things didn't _need_ a Soul to operate. They had a form of A.T. Field that is completely different from that of an orthodox Evangelion. Apparently, it could neither influence a regular A.T. Field, nor be influenced by one, and was so weak that it could collapse under conventional firepower, provided that weapons powerful enough are used. The small pods on their backs, similar to her own, carried to Lance and were only remote distractions.

'_American bullshit; any respectable Evangelion, much less a German special combat model with an ace pilot, will kill them with ease.'_

"Now approaching Tokyo-4," the onboard combat Magi announced.

Unit 14 swept down to the crimson ocean, purging its booster rockets and loading its positron cannon. The Type-M Biological Combat Platforms, the fake Evangelions, dove in uniform motion, separated by a precise 10 meters between each machine, taking maximum advantage of the previous Type-M's slipstream.

500 kilometers

The old Angel alarms should already have rung for a good twenty minutes now.

400 kilometers

Miyoko could almost hear, in her mind, the panic of the populace who remembered the war with the Angels. It sounded delicious to her imagination; made her feel powerful.

300 kilometers

They should have scrambled fighters and Jet-VTOLs already. The JSSDF was always trying to shove an elbow into Nerv's ribs at every occasion, a long-standing grudge between the two organizations. Checking her sensor array, Miyoko confirmed twelve squadrons of JSSDF Fulcrum-Fs, accompanied by two battleships, three cruisers, one carrier and ten destroyers.

"Handle the ships!" she barked at the Type-Ms. "I'm going after the fighters!"

Unit 14 broke formation and expanded its A.T. Field; the surrounding air howled as if in pain as the Eva smashed through the sound barrier.

"Launch the Lance Pods!"

Her alarms started ringing as air-to-air missiles began to appear on her sensor screen. Unit 14 fell, wrapping its wings around itself, and fired four of its eight pods. The remotes disappeared into the bright light of the day as the first of the missiles arrived. From seemingly nowhere, gunfire cut them down. The next wave met a stream of positrons from her cannon, suffering the same fate. By now, the air squadron had dove out of the clouds and continued firing at Unit 14.

Miyoko smiled wryly as she glanced at her pods monitor. All eight had been deployed. As the original four dodged and wove in and out of the line of fire, missiles and live rounds flashed into existence through the dense clouds, slamming into the planes and ripping them apart.

Pilots were human; just because the pods were visible on radar doesn't mean that they would notice the fast-moving objects behind them, with four of them already in front and an Evangelion to fight.

Below her, the destroyers were already smoking thick, black fumes, ringed by bright flames. The Type-Ms circled above, firing their weapons at the other ships. Calmly, she shot her positron rifle through the carrier's reactor, silencing it with a tremendous ball of fire. Her pods reattached themselves to the Eva and began to recharge. She checked their fuel; using them so early wasn't a wise decision; they were nearly depleted of fuel and pretty low on ammo. Cursing quietly, she removed the cartridge from her rifle, stuck it to the charger on the Eva's hip and put a fresh one in her gun. The pods will have to be resupplied soon, but undoubtedly the other Eva is headed her way by now.

The pods, she decided, can handle another fight. It would be a brief, fast kill, and everything would be over.

Surely, a couple of cruise missile pods can handle that?

The alarm

The alarm that she hadn't heard in years

Asuka instinctively grabbed around for her nerve clips. Shinji was on the phone, sounding alarmed.

"Alright, I'll get Asuka." He finished the call.

She was already alert, sitting up and looking at him. Her naked body shone in the shafts of sunlight that pierced the curtains.

"Asuka, we have to go. It's an attack."

"They sounded the Angel alarms. What the hell's going on?"

"Misato wouldn't say on an open line. Let's go, Asuka!"

He rolled off the tatami and ran for his clothes. Asuka did the same. Outside, sirens screamed, and a roar of panicked people filled their ears.

The entire earth seemed to shake as a gigantic, dinosaur-like machine scrambled out from behind a building and started shooting thin positron beams into the air. Its two lega pumped it in a raptor-like way through the boulevards of Tokyo-4.

"Jeez! The SSDF resurrected _that thing_?" Asuka gasped. She stopped next to a parked car to catch her breath.

"That's the…that's some kind of T-RIDEN-T…" Shinji murmured. "Mana must be…"

He pulled Asuka by the wrist.

"C'mon! Let's get to Nerv!"

Coastline of Lake Ashino

A blast of unnatural blue crackled across the squadron. With a hiss, they fell back and came out of formation. The leader plunged into the lake.

"Good shot!"

The T-RIDEN-T Type Alpha dashed forwards over a ground scorched by a nuclear-powered EMP blast. Mana gritted her teeth and tugged at the tubes attached to her body.

"I don't really like this new cockpit…"

She was on her hands and knees, riding the thing, for God's sake!

"Confirmed one target down; seven more still visibly moving."

A stream of positrons screamed through the air from the Type Alpha's chest emitter. It struck one Type-M as it struggled up, though it brought up a shield quickly enough that only the dense, electromagnetically coated metal plate exploded in a cacophony of flames and light. The machine stumbled backwards, and Mana squeezed another shot off at a second Type-M, which had its A.T. Field working. The beam ricocheted from the translucent panes with a glassy clink, and one layer of its Field shattered into crystal-like shards.

"That's an odd A.T. Field…"

Her T-RIDEN-T shuddered, and she yelped in pain, holding up her head, which had crashed against the control panel.

"Shit!"

One of its body shields had been blasted off. A third Type-M aimed down the barrel of its rifle. The rest were getting to their feet. Mana felt a quiver of fear as they raised their positron rifles in unison. If this was an old Western, she'd hear guns coking all around.

The sky was lit up by a ring of explosions, lighting the lake surface in a brilliant red glow as deep as the maws of hell.

"Shinji…"

Her hands clutched at his shoulder. The air reeked of gunpowder; land forces had been landed after the Evangelions wrecked the Tokyo-4 defenses with absolute ease. The massive EMP cannon had little lasting effect past scorching their armor. Now, they were fighting that T-RIDEN-T thing, and it didn't look good. Its shoulder shields were blown away, its outer armor was scorched and badly ripped, and it was missing at least three gun turrets. Flocks of Jet-VTOLs circled the Evangelions, only to be blown down one by one.

The walls behind them burst, having been loaded with AK-47 rounds. Three masked attackers circled hurriedly around a corner, running and firing from the hip. Their shots all completely missed, and Asuka drove her fist into one's sternum, grabbed his rifle, and blew all three men to shreds at point-blank range.

"Hey, don't just stand there!"

She threw a freshly-reloaded AK at him, and loaded up two for herself, stuffing magazines or ammo into her small bag.

"Go!"

A bomb exploded a block or so away from where they were, but still managed to send both to the ground. Shinji gasped in stunned pain. Asuka leapt to her feet and began to drag him away.

"Don't act so stupid, idiot! You'll get killed!"

'_Is he shell-shocked?'_

Some people simply cannot take the sound of explosions and gunfire. Their nerves collapsed, leaving them unable to move or fight on, even to save their own lives.

"Mein gott…"

He was dazed by the explosion, she hoped. The last thing Japan needed was a shell-shocked Shinji Ikari.

Asuka loaded the man onto her back. He was heavy, and with all the magazines that she was carrying, she was huffing hard after a few dozen meters.

Rifle fire crackled over her head, shattering the window of a parked car. She ducked down, aimed down the barrel and shot the first soldier through the head and hurled a second back with a pounding barrage to the chest. The chamber clicked empty, and she threw down the gun. The next two fell under fire from her second gun, and the street cleared just long enough for her to slap a new magazine to her first rifle and cock it.

The next moment, a tank rolled into view. It was a Russian model and not one used by the JSSDF.

"Oh shit…"

Its turret was turned away, but the machine gunner at the top spotted her, shouted in surprise, and crumpled as bullets ripped him apart from every direction. Asuka threw Shinji unceremoniously behind the car and stumbled over it herself. Behind it was a small niche between two buildings and an empty complex in between. There was no other way to get in except a small steel door at the other end. The door, she knew, was one of the many secret exits from Nerv-Japan. She'd come here for exactly that reason.

_A single man with a rifle can hold a pass against an entire division._

"That's right," she muttered. The tank gun's roar sounded enraged as its shell tore a chunk off the building to the right. Grumbling quietly, Asuka lifted the still dazed Shinji and held him away from the worst of the debris.

"Don't die, baka…"

He groaned and began to get up unsteadily.

"Asuka, are you…"

Surprising even herself, she quickly laid a kiss on his lips, dropped an AK and some ammo for him, and threw him down the doorway.

If that tank got through, as it certainly will in the next five seconds, it could blow both of them away in a heartbeat, even if they both got into the tunnel in time.

"Get your ass moving, Shinji; I'll hold this thing off for you."

She whirled around.

"Don't let me down!" she yelled, kicking the door shut. "AND DON'T ARGUE WITH ME, THIRD CHILD! JUST DO AS YOU'RE TOLD!"

Tears had rolled down her cheeks. She blinked them away; she was going to miss him in hell.

The tank lowered its gun, and a fresh shell, most likely antipersonnel, loaded into its chamber. The treads chewed through the sides of the two buildings with ease. Now, the gunner should be aiming at the center of her chest.

'_Let's go, Asuka. You've just got one last fight, one last stand.'_

With tears streaming down his face, Shinji Ikari disappeared unsteadily down the dark tunnel towards Nerv.

Asuka Langley Soryu whipped back her long, scarlet hair and marched out proudly to meet the monstrous tank across the short alleyway.

'_Shinji, I'm counting on you. Don't let me die for nothing.'_

**End Stage XXIII**


	24. Side by Side

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XXIV: Side by Side**

Shinji fell flat on his face. The explosion had collapsed the tunnel behind him, killing any hope of running back to Asuka's side. Tears streamed down the man's cheek unabashedly as he thought of her, standing all alone against the tank so that he could escape.

His hands grew sweaty around the handle of the rifle. Behind him, another explosion, this time muffled, rocked the ground. His insides began to knot with fear. Would she survive?

Of course! She was Asuka; Asuka always survived.

But that tank…

He shook his head and kept running. If he was going to save her, he'd have to get to his Eva as soon as possible.

If it's not already too late

Nerv Command Center

"And where the hell are the pilots?" Misato screamed. "Where are the agents guarding them?"

"They're all dead!" Hyuga screamed. "We lost track of Asuka and Shinji after they came to Emergency Exit 33! There's only a wrecked enemy tank there now."

Misato pushed him aside and stared at the monitor.

"Show the surveillance clip for the last half hour!"

She fast-forwarded and fiddled with the video until she came to one scene. Her throat caught. On the screen, Asuka shoved Shinji into the door, slammed it, and turned around to face the tank, which had blasted its way into the compound.

"Oh God, Asuka…"

She watched in shock as the tank's fire turned the fuzzy screen into a blazing inferno. The camera was hit, and the video went blank.

"Hyuga, get a VTOL there _now_!" she screamed. "If she somehow destroyed the tank then she can still be alive!"

She was alive

The searing pain in her body was proof of it. The tank's twisted and torn off gun barrel lay across her chest. Blood was everywhere; on her clothes, the metal, and dripping slowly out of her mouth.

The AK was shattered, metal and wood alike. Moments before, she had leapt at the tank, shoved the AK down its muzzle and fired point-blank down the barrel. The tank had exploded, likely because she had ignited an armed shell. Now, she lay bleeding on the ground, matted with blood and pieces of torn flesh.

_'Did Shinji get out…? Is that idiot okay?'_

She groaned and tried vainly to push the heavy metal tube off herself.

The earth rumbled again, and a shadow fell over her. Looking up, she saw the bright eyes of Evangelion Unit 01 staring down at her.

Asuka smiled contentedly and waved at the Eva.

"Hey there, Shinji; glad to see ya made it."

Unit 01 disengaged its locks and launched ahead at a full sprint. It slammed shoulder-first into the nearest Type-M, tearing its A.T. Field to smithereens. It fell onto the ground and struggled as Unit 01 plunged her progressive knife down the black machine's head. With the Eva's own rifle, Unit 01 shot the Type-M through the chest, then turned and knocked a second down with her Field. Glittering hexagons floated for a second over the struggling machine, and in the blink of an eye, it disappeared into a blazing column of light.

Asuka's fingers slowly uncurled from around the AK. Behind her, there was a thundering sound of jet engines, and someone was screaming out her name. It sounded like Misato, but she kept her eyes locked onto the sleek silver-chrome Evangelion that continued to smash through the remains of Tokyo-4.

Someone was hauling the tank cannon off her chest, and she was lifted onto a stretcher. She couldn't hear much clearly; the explosion had probably busted at least one of her eardrums. Someone's hands were smoothing the hair from her face, wiping away tears that still flowed from her eyes, kept on calling her name until she had to turn away from Shinji and investigate.

She looked dead

Misato frantically called out to the inert Asuka as she ran with the stretcher to the Nerv Jet-VTOL.

"Misato…" she murmured.

"Yes?"

"My Eva…Misato, ready my Eva. That idiot…won't survive by himself."

Her grip was still strong, and her eyes had begun focusing. The medic straightened from his examinations.

"Shrapnel punctures to eleven locations, flash burns, a severely fractured rib cage, concussion and damage to internal organs with hemorrhage," he said. "You need to hospitalize her ASAP."

"Hell no; I'm not dead yet, you know," Asuka retorted sharply from the bed. "_Misato_, ready my Eva!"

"No, Asuka. You get to rest this time. Shinji owes you one."

She pulled out a radio.

"Here"

She tuned in to Nerv's open comm. line.

"Want to talk to him?"

Asuka snatched the radio. His voice over the raspy line was frantic.

"Oh god; Asuka, are you okay?"

"Alive" she replied drily.

"I'm so glad…thank god-"

"Thank _me_, idiot, or at least thank the pitiful amateurs in that tank."

"I'm sorry…Asuka."

"No, you're not. You better pay me back."

She shut off the radio and sat up painfully to a burst of complaints from the medics.

"Off, doc; I don't have time for this."

She swung her feet off of the stretcher and looked up at the packet of blood connected to her arm.

"This is okay, I guess." She conceded.

"Asuka, you're injured!"

"But not dead."

That was just how she was; willful, headstrong and aggressive. Misato could only cede ground under the sharp gaze of her glinting blue eyes.

"At least get your injuries treated."

"Fine," she said with a snort. "Don't take too long."

Shinji grunted; the white Evangelion was far stronger than the others. He focused his A.T. Field and tried to push it away. It wouldn't budge.

"Damn it! Just move!"

He could hear its remaining three companions standing up and raising their guns. The white Eva still held his Unit 01 down.

"Shit!"

Of all things, a voice came over the intercom.

"I told her so!"

An Eva launch pad opened, and Unit 02F shot out along the rails. She spun in the air, angled herself, and two blades snapped off holders on her back.

"Guten Morgen!"

She grabbed her first blade and neatly sliced in half the torso of the middle Type-M. Finding the sword stuck in the carcass, Asuka let go, rolled along the ground, snapped her Eva open and skidded to a stop behind the white Evangelion. Her second blade was already in hand, and she slashed it in a wide arc, to intercept nothing. Loaded with the inertia of her swing, the Eva's arm pulled her down in a stumbling series of steps.

Something heavy crashed onto her shoulders and drove Unit 02 into the ground. The other Eva had leapt off at the last moment and attacked Asuka from the air. The remaining Type-Ms fired at once, knocking Unit 01 down before Shinji could block the white Evangelion from stabbing Unit 02's own blade through her back. Asuka's scream shook the LCL with a torrent of bubbles. A geyser of blood stained the unknown Eva's pristine armor.

"ASUKA!"

Both Type-Ms were sliced to ribbons by the half dozen particle beams that shot out of and spun around Unit 01's A.T. Field in wild circles. One beam bounced off of the white Eva's Field, causing it to flinch away, releasing Asuka just long enough for her to pull her Eva's legs in and drive both heels into the opponent's face. Shinji caught her Eva as it fell, and launched a shower of missiles into the enemy Eva, covering their escape.

"Shit…" Asuka groaned as she felt the gap that the blade left in her.

Shinji cradled the Eva in his arms, ducking behind a building and laying her down very gently.

"Asuka, can you get away?"

She reached up and touched his Eva's face.

"Go get him…don't worry about me. Unit 02 will back Unit 01 up," she croaked.

The air thudded heavily. The other Evangelion is closing rapidly on wings.

"Roger" he replied with tears clouding his LCL. Outside, gunfire from the city's remaining defenses kept up a thundering din. "Evangelion Unit 01F, moving out!"

Asuka held up her thumb.

"Copy that"

Unit 01 somersaulted over their cover.

"Where the hell are you?" Shinji roared. A positron beam lit up the sky, igniting an inferno that engulfed several blocks. Unit 01 had already gone, however, and was heading across the ruins of the city at maximum speed, shattering debris with her sonic wake.

"Misato, get me some platforms!" he screamed.

"We don't _have_ any!"

Only the bare minimum for Eva support had been rebuilt. It was deemed an unnecessary investment with almost no Angels about. Shinji growled angrily.

_'Damn it, damn it, damn it'_

Unit 02 crawled away from the remains of her cover.

"Misato…" she whispered. "A rifle; I need some sort of rifle."

The other Eva was hanging in the air, firing at Unit 01 as it whizzed by at supersonic speed.

"Shinji, keep running," she ordered.

"Huh?"

"Listen to what I tell you to do!"

The nearest supply ramp was a dozen blocks away.

"Go away from me," she ordered. "Make sure that thing is shooting at you the whole time!"

By now, the rifle should be on its way. Her back felt like there was an icy hot blade lodged inside. According to the instruments, the blade was still there. At least it kept blood from draining out of her Eva.

Having reached her destination unnoticed, Asuka wrenched open the hatch of the supply building and took out a humongous laser bazooka.

The same one that she'd held during her attempt to neutralize the Fifteenth Angel. The memories sent shivers, and a stab of pain, down her spine. Unit 02 purged one shoulder pylon and mounted the rifle. A holographic sniper scope materialized in front of her eye. It was far smoother and simpler than the old-fashioned helmet scopes.

The spinning circles continued to close in until they closed in over the back of the white Eva.

"Evangelion…Unit…14…"she read through the scope.

Suddenly, alarms began to wail in her cockpit, indicating radar lock-on. Startled, Asuka pulled the trigger and blew a ragged hole through Unit 14's wings, shattering its backpack as well. Just then, Asuka saw two small pods attached to the back of the Unit lift off. They carried what looked like…

Sawed-off Lances of Longinus

As Unit 14 plummeted, Asuka counter 6 more locations where the pods could be stored.

The bastard has eight Lances on Longinus.

She shut off the scope and scanned the area. All eight of the pods were headed towards her. With a small crackle of electricity, six Lances stabbed out at Unit 02. She abandoned the rifle and ignited her A.T. Field, bouncing well clear of the paths of the Lances, and felt the impact of the other two on her Field. She had been trapped. The other two pods had risen to a higher altitude and fired as she flew. The Lances shattered her A.T. Field layer by layer, showing the air with shards of energy.

"SHINJI!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. One Lance nailed Unit 02's waist, and the other stabbed her through her right arm. Asuka collapsed in a crescendo of alarms, blood and air bubbles with a scream.

_'Not—not again…'_

**End Stage XXIV**


	25. Salvation I

**NEON GNESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XXV: Salvation I**

**XXV-A: **_**Et tu, Bruté?**_

Miyoko coughed weakly. The shot in her back had been meant to reach as high as low Earth orbit. Even her Evangelion's A.T. Field couldn't handle it; not with two Evas pressing down on her from both sides.

At least the red one was out of the picture. Unit 14 struggled to her feet and the silver Unit 01F tore through the ground, coming right at her.

The remnants of the city shook with the force of the colliding A.T. Fields of the two Evas. A gash was slashed through the ground as Unit 14's A.T. Field imploded, its center caving into a hole. Each pane of the octagonal energy barrier fell back and shattered one by one as Unit 01F broke them.

She cried out again. The overwhelming strength of the enemy was too much to bear. From the onset, that Eva had seemed too powerful to be real. She couldn't take it…

She couldn't take it years ago. Like then, she was powerless to do something about it.

Like then, she would be destroyed, and her body left to rot.

'_No!'_

If she died, the plan would fail. The world would never be soft or gentle, as she wanted it. Lloyd's dreams…would evaporate.

The latter fate was the worst. She couldn't let him down, not after all these years.

"No…no…no…"

The last barrier was groaning. She could feel her Eva screaming in pain.

'_Sorry… I'm sorry that you have to keep up with my selfish demands.'_

"One last battle, okay?" she whispered.

Miyoko slammed on the controls. A halo formed over her Eva's head, and its legs barely cleared the stream of energy brought by Unit 01's passage.

The wake of Unit 01 was soft, and her Eva sank into the torn earth. She turned, and ripped free the last of the shattered backpack. The snarling monster turned back. It was hideous, with a grin belonging to death itself, and fearsome eyes.

It was a monster that looked like her nightmare.

"I'm not afraid. Come, if you dare," she snarled.

"It is time." Lloyd's message was a relief. It was time for the world to end.

"Evangelion, Unit 14, all system restraints deactivate."

A billow of warmth as her seat slid down past the contamination zone.

A rush of energy, and an inexorable relief…from the Eva

Memories began surging in her mind. They were memories of her, as a child, but…they were from the perspective of someone else, someone else who watched her grow, and felt pride and joy as she matured.

"Mommy!"

In Unit 02's cockpit, Asuka shivered in pain even as she released morphine into her blood from a pod on her Plug Suit's leg.

In the distance, Unit 01 was dancing in and out of a hailstorm of strange looking, glowing tentacles that have spouted out of Unit 14's wings. The Evangelion was glowing bright white, with a ball of energy roiling at the center of its chest.

"Shinji, you idiot…"

She checked her Eva's monitors. It was still fully functional.

"Asuka, can you hear me?" Misato was yelling frantically. With the two miniature Lances still buried in her Eva, it was awkward to move. As the drugs surged through her bloodstream, the red haze in front of her eyes began to fade.

"Yea; how's Shinji?"

"We don't know; that Eva's energy output suddenly went up by over 400%. It's so powerful that its A.T. Field is obstructing Unit 01's monitors."

Asuka cursed in annoyance.

"And my Eva; can I still fight with this damage?"

"Asuka, don't! Your Eva is severely weakened! Take up a support role!"

In the far distance, Unit 14 cracked its helmet open and roared. From the pits of her memory, Asuka could remember the terrifying sound that Unit 01 had made as it tore the Twelfth Angel apart from the inside.

"Send up the C-Type equipment we got from Germany!" she ordered.

"Wait-"

The city jumped as a ball of energy consumed a good third of its remains. Asuka screamed in pain as she was thrown against her wounds by the force of the blast. The world flashed a bright, brilliant nothingness and faded into utter darkness.

_It was dark in Unit 01's Entry Plug. Moments before, Shinji had been dodging in and out of the strange new attack. A dart of light had struck his Eva before he could move, and then the enemy…the enemy had looked into his Soul, it seemed._

"_What…just happened?"_

"_Mommy! Mommy, what are you doing here?"_

_A girl's voice…no…Shinji didn't know her. Who is this person screaming out for her mother?_

_Was it the pilot of the Eva they'd been fighting?_

_Shinji walked ahead tentatively. The world was blank, and his body was composed of rough pencil sketches. All around, strange, grotesque humanity milled about mindlessly, lost eternally in its quest for understanding._

"_Mommy…no! He couldn't have—he wouldn't do that to my mother! He wouldn't betray me!"_

_Who was this "he?"_

_Shinji felt anger replacing confusion. This world, he thought, was fucked up beyond imagination. Some little girl yelling for her mother was…was the person that destroyed his new life? The person who turned his world back upside down?_

_Bullshit._

_The voice was getting louder, clearer. She was fighting reality, it seems. Fighting against a reality where this "he" had hurt her mother._

_Doesn't she know that, in this world, people always hurt each other? That nobody could feel another person's pain?_

_Shinji could not understand why she was so surprised._

_After all, people hurt each other all the time._

**XXV-B: For Yourself**

"C-Type Equipment fully docked."

Asuka released a second dose of morphine and checked on the temporary repair strips tied around her Eva's damaged points.

"All systems are green and ready to go; Evangelion, Unit 02F C-Type, moving out!"

"Good luck," Misato said gravely. "For God's sake, come back alive."

The young woman smiled at her commander.

"Roger; will do"

Unit 02 slipped out from behind the armaments building and took cover behind a structure close to the open patch of scorched earth, where the combined A.T. Fields of Units 01 and 14 roiled.

"Weapons status," she commanded.

"Main Assault Blade check, Secondary swords check, support swords check, combat knives check, throwing knives check"

Asuka crouched down. The C-Type was not the most logical of choices in this situation, but it was more her style. Besides, it was the only full set of equipment that Unit 02 has received.

The tendrils of Unit 14 have dug deeper, and the very earth was shaking with the pent-up energy swilling around in the ruined city.

"Is there any response from Unit 01 yet?" she asked.

"None…all contact lost…"

"That idiot…!"

Unit 02 shimmered in the energy wave of her A.T. Field. The world spun through Asuka's eyes as she tumbled into the clearing. Boosters all around her Eva fired rapidly, adjusting for a smooth descent. A small pair of gliding wings hissed quietly into place and caught the air. Propelled by the initial blast, Unit 02 accelerated as she ripped through the sky and hurtled down. It was not exactly subtle, and tentacles whizzed past in a frenzied attack.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!"

With helpful nudges from her Field, Unit 02 skimmed past the darting tentacles with ease. They were not aiming very well, sign of a pilot who was very distracted.

"TAKE THIS!" she screamed. It felt good to be fighting her way again. The Secondary swords plopped out of the C-Type Pylons and fell smack into her palms. In a wide scything motion, Asuka sliced away at the tendrils one by one. A stray came close to impaling her shoulder, but only hit the sturdy metal plate that was attached to the front of the C-Type Shoulder Pylon. The metal emitted a screech of protest as the tendril, obviously aided by an A.T. Field, sliced a corner off of it.

"Scheiße!"

With a precise slash, Asuka pared a tendril down into two wriggling halves. The remaining tendrils rolled themselves back with a thump, and gathered into two rolls.

_The Fourteenth Angel's arm blades chopped off the arms of Unit 02 with ease, setting Asuka's nerves on fire with a blinding pain._

"In die Hölle kommen!"

The swords spun in uniform motion and chopped down, right at the center of the two oversized tentacles that shot out of the row. The air was filled with a high-pitched whine as Unit 02 came down at a speed close to the speed of sound and cut the two strands of glowing flesh into four. Crimson blood coated the Eva and formed a geyser of red from the luminescent tentacles.

"Just die!" Asuka roared in triumph.

The blades struck a crystalline note upon contact with Unit 14's A.T. Field. The octagons fractured, broke and shattered layer by layer.

"Don't make me do this for nothing, Shinji! I won't accept a corpse in return for saving you!" she called, not expecting him or anyone else to hear it.

"Because I love you, you dummy!"

Misato started in surprise. The entire bridge ooh'd and ahh'd in unison. Asuka forgot to turn off the universal channel.

"So you admit it, eh?" she teased despite herself.

"What-You heard?" Asuka screeched. "Damn it! It's so embarrassing!"

"No!" Misato yelled. "It's the least embarrassing thing in the world! There's nothing _less_ embarrassing than falling in love with somebody, Asuka. Just do what makes you happy, not what feeds your pride!"

"It makes me happy to feed my pride!"

"No, it doesn't; how many times have you hurt yourself with that pride? How many times have you shied away from happiness because of that pride? Grow up, damn it! Do it for yourself, not for someone else's praise!"

Misato was frustrated. As a commander, she shouldn't be saying such distracting things in mortal combat, but as a…friend to Asuka, she had to. It was no longer possible for Asuka to act so rashly, driven by her vast ego.

A whine of energy filled her ears, and Asuka barely avoided the positron beam that shot out of Unit 14's S2 Engine. It was a spectacular sight; the bluish-white beam pierced the heavens with a mighty roar, tearing aside cloud and air, and the resulting stream of sonic booms threw Unit 02 clean off of Unit 14's A.T. Field. The morphine in her blood could not mask the agony of tearing through the rubble and remains of foundations with her battered body. A flash of light blinded Asuka, and left her alone, in the dark, spiraling away…away…and away.

Misato's voice remained as her last memory of reality

'_Do it…for myself'_

'_For myself'_

'_Myself'_

'_I'_

'_I am…'_

_What?_

_All these years, all this fighting to regain her position as an Eva pilot…_

_Chasing after a possible future that was way gone_

_Chasing after her old dreams…and nightmares_

_Who had it been for? Certainly, not herself; she was terrified of Eva's power. Yet, it is this power that inexorably drew her, like a moth to a flame, towards what her life is now._

"_I am…"_

_What am I?_

_Asuka Langley Soryu, pilot of Evangelion Unit 02-F, ace of the Luftwaffe and the best fighter in the world._

_I am the best; there for I am._

_Who cares?_

_I do! Other people do!_

_Do they? Do they really?_

_YES! YES! YES!_

…

_Images spun in wild circles through the universe. Images of crying little girls, torn stuffed monkeys and impatient women with children thrust upon them._

_I can't forgive them; I can't forgive any of them; that's why I left and lived on my own. Eva and Shinji are enough for me._

"_I am Asuka; nothing more, because there is nothing more. I'm the best."_

_Then…why do you lose so often?_

_It wasn't a fair fight! The Mass Produced Evas were so much more powerful than Unit 02!_

_That particular fight wasn't mentioned; is it weighing on your mind?_

_NO! It's long past! I don't care anymore._

_Liar_

Nerv-Japan Command Center

"Unit 02's central nervous system has been compromised!" Maya shrieked. "That thing's hacking into the mainframe and forcing synchronization!"

"Shut off any open data ports; close down the Eva for pilot control only!" Misato yelled.

"The pilot is unconscious! All controls have gone dark—_the signal's attacking the Entry Plug!_"

"Manually end synchronization! Preserve the pilot at all costs!" Misato yelled.

"No use! It's not responding to our controls—we don't have the master password from Germany!"

The master password…in the Berlin Magi…

That's it…

That must be what the attacker was using. A master password…with complete access right into Unit 02's mainframe computer…

"Oh, fuck…"

The bridge technicians sat back with slumped shoulders.

"We just got kicked out; all access passwords on every level have been reset. They've taken Unit 02."

Unit 02F, the very cutting-edge of German weapons technology, was now in the hands of their enemies…

An Eva hijacked…

"The Dummy System onboard! That was _our_ installation! It was only accessible from Magi-Casper!"

Aoba, Hyuga and Maya all turned around in shock.

"Colonel Katsuragi-" they began.

"That's an order! Activate the Dummy Plug; it's designed to override the mainframe. While it's running, use it as a beachhead to get the Eva back!"

"Understood…" the techies were apprehensive. "Activating Dummy Plug"

A flow of data wrote over the wall screen. The new, revised Dummy System booted and used its preset administrator privilege to boot the Eva under its own control, reconfiguring the mainframe controls into slave drives that operated under the Dummy System.

"Now! Begin attacking the mainframe!" Misato ordered.

"The Dummy is a _combat_ system; it's not designed to be an access point. We'll have to encode new software that requires rebooting the entire Eva. That process could take up to 180 seconds on the newest system."

"Write the codes; we'll take care of the diversion you need," a deep voice declared from behind them.

The Supreme Commander of the JSSDF strode in, accompanied by a squad of Spec-Ops commandos. The old man lifted his hand.

"I understand that there has been considerable strife between our respective services in the past. However, it is time that we put those differences aside. The SSDF will hold off the attacker and give you the time you need to recapture your Eva."

Misato stared intently into the man's eyes. He met it unblinkingly.

"Your Section 2 Chief was my good friend," he said. "I must see these people…these monsters-"

He swept his hand over the destruction on the screen.

"-are utterly destroyed."

Misato nodded.

"Thank you, sir."

The man nodded.

"From one warrior to another, Colonel…good hunting"

_Miyoko drifted in the blankness of the world, bombarded by waves of memories._

_Her life_

_Her death_

_Her resurrection_

_Her betrayal_

_Lloyd had used her; used her mother, and used her as a tool._

_She thought…she'd meant more to him_

_Elsewhere, someone else was suffering, too. This person's mind was in turmoil, raging in fear and confusion._

"_NO! GOD DAMN…I…I…"_

"_I just don't want to be ignored…I just want to be special, to be…someone's treasure."_

_Miyoko couldn't understand_

_In this world, people don't treasure you; her last hope of clinging to her old belief was gone; gone so freshly that she could almost feel the jagged tear in her heart._

"_What do I do…?" she wondered._

_There were more people coming; strange, isolated dots of energy that blossomed in her mind. Many of them came, with hostile intents, inside cases of metal that dulled Miyoko's sense of their Souls._

"Alpha squad, fall back. Beta squad, take the center. Delta and Gamma form the wings. Create an envelope formation."

The Heavy Fighter Jet-VTOL II, the newest in the Heavy Fighter series, was a fresh acquisition of the JSSDF. More maneuverable and better armed, some with positron weapons, these were quickly replacing the old Jet-VTOLs, whose ranks have been decimated by Angels anyway.

"Delta, Gamma, open fire with all weapons. Alpha and Beta fall back. All squads, widen the gap in your formation."

The wings of the formation opened fire with a deafening barrage of rockets and Vulcan guns. The two VTOLs on the far side also began strafing runs with their small positron cannons. The Eva paid no heed and continued to stand still. Unit 01 was almost completely wrapped in tentacles and being absorbed into Unit 14.

Perhaps it was already too late.

_A world without pain_

_Is that what this person wants?_

_A world of nothingness, where one cannot be one's self_

_A great commune__*__of minds and Souls_

_But in this world, there is no "I," only "we."_

"_We" cannot love anyone the way that people want to be loved, by individuals whose feelings transcend the barriers of the Soul. No conversation of the mind can substitute the soft touch of Asuka's hands, the warmth of her lips, the brush of the silky strands of her hair and the murmur of her heart against his. No metaphysical universe such as this can contain human passion like interaction in reality. Individuality is vital to the formation of emotion, because only an individual can say, "I love you."_

**End Stage XXV**

Footnotes:

* "Commune" stands for an intimate conversation of great passion, not an organization of Communists.


	26. Salvation II

** NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**Stage XXVI: Salvation II**

**XXVI-A: That Day, That Hour, That Minute, That Oath**

"_I won't run away anymore," he said. "I'll stay here…no matter what._

_You said that…on that day. You swore that…that you'd be my protector._

_In the soft darkness, Asuka lay curled up in a fetal position. She was tired; tired from having to fight every day for what she wanted; tired from caring for what she has, tired of living._

_Why can't it all just end?_

"_Go away…" she murmured to a growing light. Someone was yelling for her; she didn't want to wake up. There was no point; each waking day brought more struggle; each second her eyes saw light, there was something else to fight. She never counted on such a dark, soft and comforting relief, and she wanted to take it all for herself._

"_Don't go, Asuka, don't leave me!"_

_So, it was Shinji again…hadn't he used her up already? Every time, she had to save his sorry ass._

"_Go away, God damn it! I'm tired of looking after you!"_

_The light haltered, wavered and trembled._

"_Why? Why do you have to do this again? Aren't we over this already?"_

_Reluctantly, Asuka sat upright and pushed the light away. She began to retreat further into the dark._

"_Idiot…you never understood me; you never really knew what I wanted. You were always saying forgive _me_; let _me_ have another chance. But did you ever think why you had to ask those questions in the first place?"_

_She was drowning; up to her waist in swirling shadow._

"_Did you ever think to follow up on your promise, that day on the beach? Where you promised to protect me? Idiot-don't look confused! You remember, don't you?"_

"_I'm-NO!"_

_The light made a grab for Asuka, and missed by a hair._

"_NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"_

"Unit 02…just cut off all transmissions…we couldn't send the command signal in time."

"The target is not responding; the JSSDF VTOLs are unable to damage it!"

"Unit 01 has been completely engulfed!"

Misato smashed her fist into the panel in front of her.

"No data linkage at all?" she growled. "Try every goddamn frequency; hopefully we'll hit something! As long as the backbone of the program is in place, all it needs is a single packet to activate!"

Suddenly, the monitor crackled, and several technicians screamed in surprise. The Type-666A firewall disappeared completely from the Magi's status screens, and the key packet was deleted, along with the local copy of the Dummy Access System.

"Hello, gorgeous; long time no see"

Misato stifled a scream, but her body went limp and fell onto the floor. The image of the man on the wall screen winced a bit.

"_Kaji…?"_

"Who else could I be? You look more beautiful than ever, by the way; how 'bout it? You, me, a pack of beer and that old car of yours, just like those good old days."

Her head spun; there was no way that this man could be Kaji, yet he looked like Kaji, spoke like Kaji…

_The password of Ryoji Kaji_

Can it be?

"Are you-are you the one who…who's doing all this?" she stammered. "Cut it out, jerk! Stop smiling like that!"

From his seat in Nerv-Berlin, Lloyd chuckled.

"If I was, then I wouldn't stop for you, Misato. Best thing is to go along with what I say. That's all that you did for a good week, back in college. Shouldn't be so hard now, eh?"

A familiar vein popped in Misato's fist

"You…why, you…"

Her legs snapped back, and a twist of her back sprang her up to her full height.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH! YOU'RE NOT KAJI! KAJI WOULD NEVER TALK AND THINK LIKE THAT!"

Lloyd arched his eyebrow.

"I thought I was a creepy pervert; why wouldn't I talk like that?"

"Because-"

Both Misato and Lloyd stared in surprise at Maya.

"Because…because Mr. Kaji was a kind man!" she yelled. "He was nice! Sure, he played around, but he respected women! He cared about people! That's why he saved Professor Fuyutsuki, even though he knew he was going to die!"

Lloyd paused for a moment, and then sighed.

"I was having fun there, lady. Don't ruin it for me, or you're going to suffer more!"

A spray of machine gun fire cut down the nearest Nerv security guards, and a pair of JSSDF Heckler & Koch G11 assault rifles appeared at the head of all the senior technicians and Misato.

"What the-Supreme Commander-"

The man raised his pistol to Misato's face.

"Sorry, miss, nothing personal; just earning my paycheck."

The JSSDF was _in_ on this.

Seriously high-ranked Nerv officials were in on this.

The rot had hit their very core; this guy, who looked like Kaji, had easily bought his way through the entire structure of Nerv and the JSSDF.

As he spoke, Misato looked back and saw the red lid of Magi-Casper.

Hadn't she ordered a segregation of data among the Magi?

Casper was completely shut off and sealed. Data goes in and only in, and Casper will not process any data at all. It is only a tool of storage.

And it has also backed up the Dummy System automatically as the technicians wrote it.

She sat, hunched, fingering a small storage drive in her pocket, standard emergency equipment for the backup of small key files. How could she get it to Casper, download the program and deliver a copy to Unit 02? There was a small access port on each Evangelion for maintenance. It was possible for someone to activate Unit 02 manually.

Her hand lay to rest quietly on her sidearm.

_A promise…is a promise forever._

A splash of scarlet sloshed a spray of color into the dreary ruins of Tokyo-4. The glowing Unit 14 split at the center. It writhed, twisted and screamed. The sound was a terrifyingly human sound, like a person dying of grief. From inside the gory mass of organs, blood and ropy mucus, a hand emerged. It groped the air, grabbing for something insubstantial. Following the hand was a head, a serpentine, mono-horned head.

Evangelion Unit 01 roared back to life. Covered in the blood of Unit 14, its armor glows a violet hue. With a single swipe of its hands, it cut apart the remains of Unit 14 and stepped out. A blazing cross of fire vaporized the tentacles binding Unit 02, and the Eva flopped to the ground limply.

"I made a promise, Asuka, I want to fulfill it."

**XXVI-B: Release**

The darkness had gone away. With the return of the light, came pain. Blinding, glaring pain that tore at Asuka's body

She wanted to return to the embrace of the dark, yet the dark fled before the light.

"Go away…"she whimpered.

"_No, I won't; not until you get up! Asuka, don't be a bad girl, or Mama will spank you"_

!

!

!

Unit 02's eyes opened again.

She wasn't going to die.

Not if Mama is still here, as she always has been, in the Core of Evangelion Unit 02.

"This is _my_ Unit 02…she's been alive all along…"

'_And so have I…' _

Nerv-Japan Command Center

The gun's muzzle was cold on her head.

The destruction of Unit 14 was eliciting a frown of disapproval from Lloyd.

"Well, that's rather too bad. I was hoping she'd be of further use, but…"

The intercom crackled open with Asuka on the line.

"Misato, what's wrong with my Eva? It's not moving!"

"Don't worry about it; I'll come fix it soon, but before that,"

She glanced at Lloyd's soldiers, who leveled their guns, not wanting to alert Asuka to their presence.

"Asuka…it's going to be all right. Open your eyes and see the world around you. See the beauty and hope that lies within it."

She cast a glance at the technicians around her and nodded slightly.

The soldiers tensed

"And most of all see the beauty in you yourself."

"Misato, what do you mean?"

She reached forwards and switched to audio only mode.

'_You shouldn't have to see what's about to happen…'_

Most of the crew bowed their heads and took a deep breath. Each and every one of them knew that Nerv-Japan must not be allowed to fall.

And the two Evas were their last effective weapons.

Misato grimaced. It was time to fight.

She reared back and shot the JSSDF commander in the face, rolled and picked off her other guards. In a moment, an assault rifle was in her hand, and its gray metal muzzle ignited the dim command center with its furious blasts. Almost immediately, a new force of commandos stormed into the room. The bridge was alive with screams as the Nerv personnel were executed one by one. Aoba pulled out the Steyr MPi 69 that he'd had since Third Impact and sprayed wild streams, cutting the guards around him to bits. His finger was still clasped around the gun as a full sized CWIS Gatling cannon hauled in by the new enemies sliced his waist in half. As half of his body plunged, the finger locked around the Steyr's trigger held fast, spewing a dying firework, a brief monument for the fallen. Hyuga's glasses skidded over the floor as he smashed shots into the mass of JSSDF commandos with his tiny Glock 17. When the Gatling swung into his direction, he immediately disappeared into a puff of blood.

Misato was nowhere to be found

Hyuga and Aoba's mutilated corpses merged with the rest of Nerv

A soft clink suddenly sounded, and an orange fireball engulfed the Gatling crew. Maya screamed as the fire burnt most of her face black in an instant, but held on to the second grenade and a bloodstained G11. Before the smoke cleared, she was running at the squad of commandos, screaming and shooting. A hailstorm of bullets tore her into shredded flesh and broken bone, but she managed to pull the pin.

"Sorry, Sensei…sorry Misato-san…bye bye, Shinji and Asuka…" she whispered as the remains of her body dropped into the crowd of soldiers and disintegrated in the grenade's explosion.

…

…

Aoba, Hyuga, Maya, the crews of Nerv-Japan…all dead.

Misato grimaced as she tapped into Magi-Casper.

_Downloading_

An executable file, slowly moved into a small pen drive, that holds the fate of a nation in its flash memory.

The soldiers were closing in slowly. As she typed, she noted the Ukrainian face of a dead JSSDF soldier. Why would a commando of the _Japanese_ Strategic Self-Defense Force be _Ukrainian_?

Loud voices in a language that Misato could not identify drew closer. The data was now on the flash drive. The problem now was to get out of Nerv. She glanced around, relieved to find that the camera that the man who looked like Kaji looked through wasn't able to see her. He could, however, switch to other cameras. Many had been blown out in the firefight, and the little corner next to the service panel of Casper was a blind spot.

'_Distraction; a distraction…'_

Asuka was screaming in fear and confusion, screaming for her. Misato wondered if she's taking fire in her inoperable Eva. The girl-she was still a girl to Misato-was still injured, after all.

She hoped that Shinji was being chivalrous for once.

The dead soldier had a standard JSSDF G11 and a Panzerfaust III

She darted out momentarily and grabbed the smooth barrel. Instantly, the air broke with shouts in the same unknown foreign language, and footsteps thudded towards her location. Misato hoisted the Panzerfaust and fired at the direction of the voices. The ensuing explosion set everyone's ears a-ringing. Misato struggled up and stumbled backwards. She threw her gaze over her shoulder as she stuffed another rocket into the Panzerfaust. From behind her came the faint sound of shouts that drifted over the loud ringing in her ears, and with a finger stuffed into one ear, Misato fired a second shot. Flames engulfed another section of the Command Center, with a devastating shockwave that threw debris and human parts all over the floor. Misato decided to abandon the Panzerfaust, and dashed away in the confusion. There should be an old Jet-VTOL in the Nerv hangars.

Nerv-Berlin

"FOOLS!" Lloyd roared. "How could you let one woman escape and take out most of your squads?"

He pulled out his pistol and shot his vice-commander.

"You!" He snarled at the next man. "You're in charge now."

A fool, fools, more incompetent fools; they were his curse, his burden, his setback. How many men had he executed for failures? There were too many to count.

He was still wondering this when his new second-in-command, his skin covered in a nervous sweat and his eyes bulging in terror, shot him in the back of his head. Nobody moved an inch; paychecks were a flimsy insurance of loyalty.

**XXVI-C: Counterattack**

Unit 02, Entry Plug

"Program error…program error…what happened to my Unit 02?"

Asuka frantically pawed the controls to no avail; Unit 02 refused to move. Above her, Unit 01 stood, gory and terrifying, yet unable to help.

"Asuka, come out! It's dangerous to be in there!" Shinji said frantically. "You're a sitting duck!"

"Shut up! I can't abandon Mama like this!"

"But you'll get hurt-"

"I don't care, and I don't care that you care, either! Just keep you're A.T. Field over me and we'll both be fine!"

The remains of nearby wreckages burst apart under American shells. Asuka screamed in frustration and smashed her unresponsive controls. Nothing happened; she collapsed on top of the seat and heaved in exhaustion.

Uni1 01 held her up and began to drag her away. Shinji quivered at the unparalleled destruction all around. Tokyo-4 was gone; its glittering buildings and streets replaced by a quagmire of rubble and mud. It was much like the days immediately following Third Impact, except people were all over the city, running, fleeing, seeking shelter.

Dying

Dying by the hundreds and thousands as their shelters were torn up under the nonstop explosions. Blood matted the earth, and dead bodies were strewn all over the rubble.

Dying because the Eva pilots couldn't protect them

"Asuka, stay," he ordered. "Your armor should protect you."

"What-hey-where are you going, idiot?"

Unit 01 was already walking away, its open mouth hanging open in a silent snarl.

"I'm going out," he said.

There was an American carrier group in the bay.

Damn that man; he'd bought off America, too, probably with Eva technology.

Suddenly, Unit 01 had stood up and, shrugging off a hailstorm of gunfire, begun advancing at the ships.

'_Idiot-He's leaving Asuka unprotected!'_

She pushed down on her VTOL's controls and banked sharply left.

"Asuka, Shinji, can you hear me?" she called urgently.

"Misato, Misato, stop that idiot! Hey-"

A yelp cut off her message as several particularly nasty shells struck Unit 02.

Misato glanced at her instruments. No good; Shinji had shut off communications.

"No point; let's concentrate on getting you back on your feet," she said, choking back a sob for her colleagues. "Everyone's waiting for you to save them!"

A cross rippled across the crimson bay and tore a battleship in two. Fire began again, this time more frantically, as Unit 01 marched to war.

Shinji

It was incredibly loud inside the Entry Plug of Unit 01. Warnings and alerts popped up all over the panoramic display. Tons of information, which he did not want to know, rolled over his tired eyes.

He was tired of seeing people die, so he decided to stop the things that threatened his world.

The ground of what had been Tokyo-4 was smeared in blood and ruin. It was happening all over again.

Ahead, the aircraft carrier's flight deck opened to reveal four Evangelion lifts. Shiny Type-Ms lifted off with bright flashes and dove at Unit 01 with rifles ablaze. Unit 01 sidestepped the shots, jumped over the head of the first Type-M that landed, swiped its feet from out under it and threw it against the ground. The prog-knife appeared in her hand as she lunged, hammering the blade into the second Type-M's skull.

"Stop taking everything away from me!" Shinji screamed. Whether it was aimed at the Evangelions in front of him or at the calloused world, he did not know; only that this rampage of destruction had to stop.

Unit 01's back gored the earth as she rolled away from the mêlée, unearthed her knife from the Type-M's s forehead and slashed out at the first. It parried with a snap-out bayonet, and the two blades screeched together, both slicing into the other at the molecular level. Shinji twisted the blade, and it cut right through the bayonet from the flat side. A shoulder drive left the Type-M reeling, open for the attack, and Shinji reared.

**Stage XXVI-D: All you can Do is Cry**

Asuka

She huffed frantically while waiting for the program to take effect. Misato had left already, saying that she'd thought of something. The progress bar crawled like a drunken sloth, and she could only watch as Shinji was bayoneted in the back by the last Type-M.

"Idiot! Learn to watch your back!" she screamed.

Thirty seconds left until Unit 02's controls are reset. What use were the multitudes of advanced blades strapped to her Eva if she couldn't use them?

Unit 01 twisted around and grabbed her assailant's throat. The Type-M that she'd left alone jumped onto her back and stabbed right down the cockpit hatch with its knife. The last Type-M thrust its bayonet into Unit 01's side. Even the Eva that was impaled in the head stood back up and stuck its bayonet into Unit 01's other side. Every stab was aimed at the Entry Plug.

Asuka felt her spirit drift upwards, somehow looking at her own scream as Unit 01 ceased to struggle and went limp.

_The Replica Lance of Longinus burst her skull with pain, the massive shaft cruelly dragging through her brain. Moments later, the world went white as pain mutated to agony from everywhere on her body. Her head, her chest, her ribs, organs and arms all blazed as the Mass-Produced Evangelions feasted on her limp body._

"Oh, hell no, God damn it…"

0:00:00

"Let's go!"

Unit 02 sprang up and charged. The main assault blade unclipped, fell neatly into her hands, and sizzled with a stream of plasma that sprang out along the blade's length.

The Type-Ms dropped Unit 01 to the ground and turned as one. Unit 02 dove and sliced across. The superheated plasma vaporized armor and flesh with equal efficiency. The torso of the first Type-M flew over Asuka's head. The others instantly jumped away and began shooting their rifles.

"Eat some of this!" Asuka roared.

She threw up her sword and drew a pair of throwing daggers.

"You're just cheap _machines_!"

Both blades dug into the face of a Type-M. The sword dropped back down. Asuka caught it, pointed down and sunk it through the Type-M's chest. A downward swipe ripped through the Type-M with ease.

"Two down, two more to go!"

The swing of the sword carried far too much inertia. Asuka dropped it, unclipped her Secondary Blades.

"There's plenty more where that came from!"

The two blades caught in a scissor-cut with the rifle of a Type-M. Sparks flew in all directions as the blades sunk into the barrel.

Asuka drew the blades across hard, severing the barrel. She slashed down with the first blade and plunged the second into the enemy's Core.

An excruciating pain tore through her chest; the morphine was wearing off. The pain became unbearable, and she gasped to the ground.

"D-Damn it…I can't…"

Unit 02 bounced off of Unit 01's body, struck by the last Type-M.

Asuka screamed in pain as the dark machine impaled her Eva's stomach with its knife. A twist brought gouts of blood out of her gut. The Type-M came in for the kill.

Its neck splashed with blood.

A hole had appeared in it, seemingly from nowhere.

Another shot took a second Type-M through the head.

A remote Lance Pod streaked in, rattling off shots as it flew. The two Type-Ms ducked and began shooting at the agile pods. One blew up in midair; the other shattered a Type-M's rifle and then smashed into its face as its engine died from lack of fuel. A third pod blasted its missiles away, and then dropped to the ground. The remaining pods suffered similar fates as their propellant ran dry.

Asuka groaned and scanned the battlefield. Only the bleeding stump of Unit 14 lay in her sight, and it…had shifted positions from when Asuka had seen it last.

For a second, she could almost hear a girl's voice saying, _"Don't let them win; I'll fight with you."_

Just imagination, she decided. That, and the pain in her body and mind.

The American fleet was drawing back, and the Type-Ms had taken off for the refuge of their ships. Asuka was too tired and in too much pain to do much more than stare at the backs of the Type-Ms.

She injected another dose of morphine; it wouldn't be good to get addicted, but the morphine took the edge off of the pain.

"Shit…" she muttered wearily. "Shit…shit…shit…shit."

She half-crawled, half squirmed to Unit 01 and made to remove the Entry Plug, but paused.

"Hey, idiot, get up," she croaked.

The intercom remained a buzzing pane of static.

"Hey, Shinji, get up! Get up! GET UP!"

Asuka slammed her palm against the cockpit cover.

"GETUPGETUPGETUP!" she sobbed. "Don't make me kill you!"

_Kill you…_

No answer.

Asuka collapsed; again.

No point trying to open the cockpit now.

She was terrified of what she'd see inside, the messy corpse, bayoneted to death and spewing organs from every hole.

Tears welled to Asuka's eyes as she stroked Unit 01's body. She could blame him, she could rant, she could scream.

But he was gone; forever.

And all she could do is cry.

**End Stage XXVI**


	27. Redemption: Finale

Author's Note: Anything in _ITALICS _is a) a way to emphasize certain words, b) thoughts or c) metaphysical settings within a character's mind (i.e. Personal Hell Train Car scenes from the original series)

**Bold **words, except for the title and ending, are a) further emphasis or b) indications of which character's mind the story is going into.

Thank you, everyone, for sticking with me for twenty-seven chapters.

**NEON GENESIS EVANGELION: REDEMPTION**

**REDEMPTION: Finale: Part I: Here**

**Miyoko Izanami**

Winter of 2018, in Lloyd's trailer

Miyoko still barely knew this enigmatic man, yet she was drawn to him, his touch, and his gentle attitude

As she curled in her bed, looking out the window, he knocked at her door.

"Miyoko, can I come in?"

Her face brightened with a smile, and she sat up.

"Sure, Lloyd, come right in!"

The door opened, and he came in with breakfast. Her smile widened even further when he sat down and put an arm around her shoulders. As she'd done for quite a while now, she leaned against him and sank her head into his chest. In response, he slid his fingers through her hair and held the base of her head. Together, they sat and ate in silence. Occasionally, he picked up a slice of toast and fed her, and she would do the same for him.

Several years later, he'd come to her room as usual, and she was waiting for him, naked.

…

_The memory dulled. Miyoko was in a sea of darkness again, where she'd curled up ever since the Plug had turned bright white with her own fear._

_The hated voice drifted towards her again; it had been dogging her ever since she tried to curl up and fade away. It would not release her, would not let her go, and trapped her in her own nightmares._

_You wanted him to take you_

_Yea_

_The voice seemed to laugh, but with no sound._

"_What's so funny?"_

_You let him have your body as he wished, and he had a big appetite, didn't he?_

"_So what, I wanted him to!"_

_Three, four days a week, many times every day, however he likes it?_

_The voice mocks her mercilessly_

_You seem more like his personal whore; you let him dirty you and play with you, tie you up, take pictures, everything but invite his friends to share you. Is he so different, then, than those men who raped you the day you came back?_

"_No! This was…this was for fun! He loves me; he'd never hurt me, so it's okay…"_

_So, as long as you're not hurt, it's okay for him to rape you?_

"_Shut up!"_

_Why did you let him? Did you feel more loved with him?_

"_Hey! I just wanted him to be happy!"_

_A face materialized from the waves of darkness. It was her own face, topped by bunny ears and a disgusting looking, open-crotched suit, which she instantly recognized as one of Lloyd's favorites. He'd often make her wear it and then…_

_You recognize this?_

_The girl that looked like her laughed in her face._

_Of course; the first time he bought you this, he tied you to the bed for the whole night, and you know both of you liked it._

_Miyoko tried to shrink, shamefaced, into the arms of the dark._

_Where are you going? You cannot run away, y'know. You cannot run away from yourself, your past, or me._

_Because I am you; I am you, I am your lust, your desire, your need for attention. You still try to run away, I see, but you can't._

_The girl extended her arm in a broad sweep._

_From you yourself, Miyoko, there is nowhere you can run_

_Miyoko screamed and lunged at the girl's neck. The bunny ears fell off as her Miyoko's hands grabbed her double's throat, tearing into the delicate white flesh with feral hatred._

"_I am NOT a whore, you bitch! Get away from me!"_

_The girl laughed at her as she began to die. Slowly, still laughing, her life drained away._

_You cannot run away_

_Miyoko whirled around. The girl is there, still laughing at her. The corpse dropped out of Miyoko's hand. Two more, identical girls appeared behind the second, then three, four and five. In the blink of an eye, a veritable legion of laughing Miyokos covered the universe._

_So stop trying to run!_

**Asuka Langley Soryu**

"Hey, wake up!"

The aromatic smell of breakfast drifted into the bedroom. The door opened, revealing a lean, handsome young man bearing a tray of eggs and frankfurter sausages.

He sat down at the foot of a bed for two, and shook the huddle of blankets.

"Mmm!"

A hand reached out and slapped around. The man caught the delicate wrist and put it back down.

"Asuka, wake up already. Don't you want breakfast?"

"I'm still tired, idiot!"

"The frankfurters are getting cold."

A woman with glowing red hair sprang out of bed.

"Well, you should have told me! It's a sin to let good sausages go cold!"

Laughing lightly, the young man put his free arm around her and handed her the plate.

"I see you gave me a proper set of knife and a fork instead of those stupid sticks," she remarked as she dug in hungrily.

"Are you sure that you want to eat before throwing up?"

His hand traced over the swelled curve of her belly.

"Shut up. If I do you'll cook me more; after all, this is your fault," she shot back at him with a smile. "Actually, make more anyway; the next Asuka has to grow, you know."

He leaned his ear against her stomach and caressed its round contours.

"Hey, Shinji, don't be a stupid pervert! Get me more food!"

_What?_

_The happy scene flickered and grayed._

_No…_

_Shinji is _dead_, gored to death by those strange black Evangelions…_

_Asuka shook her head._

_Just a dream, that's all._

_Nothing's changed, nothing will change. She's still alone_

_Where am I?_

_Where is Shinji?_

_Dying isn't the end, you know; don't be stupid, Asuka! You died yourself!_

_There is someone else inside Unit 02's Entry Plug._

"_What's there, after death, huh?"_

_Nothing_

_Everything_

_Do you not know?_

_Asuka knew only pain, before and after death. Before death, she was torn and ripped; after death, she drowned in a sea of memories she never wished to revisit._

"_Nothing but bad things"_

_Is that all you can see? Do you not see rest in the coming eternity? Rest from strife and conflict, with nothing threatening you?_

"_And nobody there with me. I'll be all by myself for eternity. That's just too scary to think about," she said, with a glance at the front of her Plug Suit, where Misato's old, rusty cross hung, put there by Shinji as they squirmed into his bed together. The old metal, a small memorabilia of Shinji, gave her some semblance of comfort from its rough, pockmarked surface._

_And so, you choose to entirely ignore the fact that life must end._

"_I don't care; I'll fight even death itself if it comes."_

_Awful lot of bravado, but bravery didn't exactly stop _him_ from dying, did it?_

_Asuka's own face appeared in the swirling darkness._

_He's dead, Asuka, and you can't change that. How does that make you feel?_

_Honestly, there really is nothing that she can do for him, except to pray, which she's never considered anyway; begging for help from supposedly omnipotent beings doesn't click with Asuka, especially not when she spent most of her life fighting them._

"_I can't change anything," she replied to herself. "But I made up to him for everything before; I was happy with him, he was happy with me."_

_She shoved the other Asuka away._

"_Besides, he…was trying to save me, so…I have no regrets," she said, as much to herself as to the other Her. "I'd give anything to be with that idiot again, but…I know I can't; it's impossible."_

_As she was shoved into the darkness, the other Asuka shot off one last sentence._

"_Your coming back to life after Third Impact was also supposed to be impossible, but _he_ made it possible. Can't you do better than stupid Shinji?"_

It was almost half an hour before Unit 02 began to move again. It lifted itself to Unit 01 and tore off the Plug cover. A hiss of steam escaped, and the Plug swiveled out. Inside Unit 02, Asuka willed herself not to take the sedative, and not to faint again.

"Not…giving up yet…" she growled. "I didn't see you die, and I don't want you to die, if you're still alive."

She struggled to keep moving despite the pain and Unit 02's Core quickly collapsing from its inherent instability, caused by Third Impact.

"I'd hate you forever if you just leave me here like this…I'd hate myself more for not trying."

A final series of warnings flashed over the HUD before it shut off, and Unit 02 stopped moving completely.

"Did I do it? Did I get him out…? Not now…verdammt…"

She sank again, this time far more rapidly.

**Miyoko**

"_You betrayed me."_

_The pigtailed man did not respond to her accusation, or even turn to acknowledge her._

"_You made me believe in a better world…when there wasn't one. Why?"_

"_I had a use for you…" a ghostly voice spoke from Lloyd's lips._

"_Is that…the sole reason?" she asked._

"_Yes."_

"_Don't I…don't I mean more to you? Don't I at least count as a person?" she shrieked._

"_While your usefulness lasted, yes"_

_Miyoko hurled a nearby chair at his back. The chair hit, fell to the ground, and did nothing. Lloyd kept staring into space._

"_YOU TRICKED ME! YOU TRICKED ME INTO DOING YOUR DIRTY WORK WHILST YOU SAT HERE SMIRKING! YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!"_

"_And so I did," he answered, life seeming to spontaneously flow into his voice. "You were weak, so I saved your life. In return, all you had to do was to carry out my plan and create a perfect world for mankind, a utopia where you can hide from the past…where you will disappear. You wanted that world and me so much that you made yourself believe my words, so…are you surprised?"_

_He turned around, and Miyoko screamed. In place of his handsome face was a skinned, bleeding skull with a fist-sized bullet hole connecting the forehead with the back of his head, grinning with deep, black eyes that seem to hold open the gates of Hades…where she will indeed disappear._

"_And you _are_ disappearing, Miyoko darling. You are disappearing right now. Your Soul has lost its will to live a long, long time ago, when it gave up its struggle to keep its shape…now, my dearest Miyoko…__**COME TO HELL WITH ME**__!"_

**Asuka**

_Haydn, Symphony # 94, "Surprise" Movement I, Allegro, adapted for strings_

_The first time she drew out the first cheerful notes, the little girl, only nine at the time, had felt happy for the first time in many years, swimming in Haydn's music. Then, as her eyes moved over to the fortissimo cord that made the piece so marvelous, she began feeling nervous. Could her little violin actually do it?_

_Of course she can! She can do anything!_

_The screech of the violin made her almost drop it in surprise and dismay. It was horrendous; even a cat curled at her feet leapt up and yowled in anger. Tears began to pool in the little girl's eyes. She can't fail at this now!_

_Her eyes tearing, she flipped back to the beginning and kept trying. Every time, the damned cord sliced through her mind painfully, until she sobbed in a little huddle in her chair._

_It was the first of many failures that she had to endure. The burning humiliation, when her stepmother yelled at her to keep the racket down still seared her soul whenever she heard the Surprise Symphony played. Yet, even now, she still wanted to try, believing that she could succeed._

_This is some kind of loony world, existing in her mind. Nobody's here to laugh at her. So, with her old violin, conjured up by her thoughts so accurately that it still bore the scratches and sweat marks laid onto it by the years, she began the motif. The happy tune was almost mocking in its lighthearted song. Five notes to go, four… three…two…one…_

_A beautiful, blast of sound lit the world of her ears, deep, warm, rich and powerful. Her bow froze, still poised to deliver Haydn's little joke. That was a cello, not a violin, and she'd not drawn yet._

"_That wasn't supposed to have been played by something like a violin," Shinji Ikari said. "It needs something deeper."_

_His uncertain smile was as nervous, weak and warm as ever, and so was his embrace when he hugged her._

"_What are you doing here?" she murmured into his chest. "You're dead."_

"_Sorry"_

"_Still apologizing?"_

"_Sorry"_

"_Idiot; that doesn't help," she said. She looked up into his face. "Why did you do it? Why did you charge like an idiot?"_

"_What could I do? You couldn't fight, so I had to protect you, didn't I? I promised you that, after all."_

_She chuckled mournfully as she dug into him, feeling the heat of his body and wishing it were real._

"_Is it really you? Or is this just another figment of my imagination here to haunt me?"_

_He stroked her hair affectionately and kissed the top of her head._

"_You're alive, so I didn't live for nothing."_

"_You're not answering my question, Shinji."_

"_Sorry," he apologized, much as he used to do for every little thing_

_She sighed and dried her eyes on his shirt sadly._

"_Dummkoph…I tried to save you, okay? Don't blame me if I couldn't."_

"_It's okay; I won't. You tried, didn't you?" he said with some cheer. "Thank you."_

**REDEMPTION: Finale: Part II: To Lie in Rest**

Several weeks later

A cold sun hung over the ruins of Tokyo-4. A woman's hair fluttered out from behind a hunk of rubble on the beach, inside a barrier of yellow tape. A few miles off, a pile of scrap armor pieces lie in a puddle of LCL, marking the place where the last thread of hope for perfection had died. Yet, as the sun blinks through the clouds, the grave slowly but surely drained away, trickling in small streams through the soft sand to join the eternal, silent ocean.

The woman knelt on the ground with a small, iron cross in her hand. It was left here for _him_ long, long ago during the last days of the old world. He had given it to her out of love, as he himself had received it from a woman who sacrificed her life for him. Now, as she knelt, the metal warming in her hand, the history of the cross played over her mind. Each transition came with someone's sacrifice. Yet, at the same time, someone else's life was preserved. When the chain of events ended at her, it wasn't just one, but three people whose sacrifice culminated in her life. It makes her shudder to feel the weight of her own survival.

"Why did I…" she wondered aloud.

A hand fell on her shoulder.

"Because people loved you, because people wanted to protect you, because you're worth protecting."

She smiled sadly and held the hand. One last time, she looked at the earth. Then, she planted the cross in the sand. There it lies, with all the pain and love it had carried, buried in the soft, white sand. Someday, the blood-red waves will carry it and its accumulated sadness away to sea, where it would sink, dissolve and be united with the primordial ocean. Its journey is over; there will be no more need for sacrifice, no more need for hurt, no more need for wondering, "Why did I live?"

No more loneliness; Asuka Langley Soryu would not need to cry anymore.

"Let's go home, Shinji."

**END**


End file.
